Deer DNA Pinpoints Where Animals Came From in Chronic Wasting Disease Country
Bioengineer
October 11, 2026
When a wild white-tailed deer tests positive for chronic wasting disease far from any known infected zone, wildlife managers face an urgent question: did the animal walk there, or did it arrive by some other route? A new study published in Ecology and Evolution shows that thousands of genetic markers scattered across the deer genome can answer that question with remarkable precision, placing most animals within 50 kilometers of where they were actually sampled. The work, led by researchers affiliated with Pennsylvania State University and the U.S. Geological Survey, offers wildlife agencies a genomic tool for tracing the origins of disease-positive deer across a five-state region of the American mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
Chronic wasting disease, a invariably fatal prion disorder first detected nearly 60 years ago in a captive Colorado facility, has now reached free-ranging cervids in 37 U.S. states, four Canadian provinces, and three Scandinavian countries. It remains the only self-sustaining prion disease known in wildlife, and while the risk it poses to human health remains speculative, its effects on infected deer populations can be devastating, driving measurable population declines in affected herds. Because white-tailed deer are the most abundant and most heavily harvested deer species in North America, and the primary species affected by the disease, their movements are considered the main driver of natural disease spread into new areas.
Management of the disease in wild populations relies on population reduction through agency culling and public hunting, intensive surveillance, and restrictions on moving deer carcass parts out of affected zones. All of these tools depend on knowing where deer come from and where they can travel. Yet the management units used to regulate hunting and surveillance are frequently drawn along administrative boundaries, roads, or topographic features rather than biological realities, meaning a single genetically coherent deer population may be split across several regulatory zones. When animals cross those artificial lines, monitoring assessments can go badly wrong.
Mating Season Turns Water Tanks and Scrapes into Prion Hotspots for Male Deer [edited]
Bioengineer
October 10, 2026
Every autumn, as the rut grips North America's deer country, male cervids abandon their usual caution. They travel farther, fight, court, scent-mark, and congregate at predictable places on the landscape. A new study in Ecology and Evolution suggests that this seasonal recklessness carries a hidden cost: it concentrates chronic wasting disease (CWD) exposure risk at a handful of shared sites, turning ordinary stock tanks and white-tailed deer scrapes into potential engines of prion transmission across an entire multi-host cervid community.
A research team led by Rebecca M. Windell of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Center, working with colleagues at Colorado State University and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, set out to quantify that risk during the mating season. Their study area was the Wildcat Hills of western Nebraska, roughly 9,100 square kilometers of buttes, canyons, ponderosa pine, and shortgrass prairie where CWD has been enzootic since it was first detected in 2000. Prevalence in mule deer in the surrounding management unit has hovered around 15 percent over the past decade, making the region an ideal natural laboratory for studying how a multi-host community shares - or fails to share - a prion disease.
2. Colorado adopts emergency rule for New World Screwworm
By: Kinsey Bitterman
FOX21News.com
October 11, 2026
(COLORADO) - Colorado has adopted a new emergency rule to control the spread of New World Screwworm (NWS) after a positive detection in Texas and New Mexico, according to the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA).
"With ongoing NWS outbreaks in neighboring regions and increased international livestock transport, updating our emergency rule is essential to protect the health and safety of Colorado's animals and livestock industry," said State Veterinarian Dr. Maggie Baldwin.
The CDA said the new emergency rule outlines the requirements for animals entering Colorado from an NWS-infested state. A few key elements include:
Streamlined Infested Zone Protocols: Updates and clarifies import requirements for warm-blooded animals originating from established NWS Infested Zones, including mandatory pre-movement inspection, Certificates of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) issued within 5 days, entry permits, authorized treatments for open wounds, and post-arrival inspections.
International Import Standards: Establishes explicit requirements for animals originating from NWS-affected countries, including Mexico. Animals that satisfy federal import protocols (USDA, CDC, CBP) automatically meet state requirements. However, the emergency rule has added safeguards for other species or unmonitored movements.
Enforcement & Quarantine Provisions: Grants authority to order quarantines or the return of non-compliant animals to their origin premises, alongside potential civil or criminal enforcement
Full text: https://www.fox21news.com/news/colorado-adopts-emergency-rule-for-new-world-screwworm/
3. Dietary Zinc in Gestating Cows and Sows: What's Ideal?
By Dr. Abigail Rose Trachtman and Dr. Laurel E. Redding
Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security
LancasterFarming.com
October 12, 2026
Zinc is an essential part of livestock nutrition. This trace mineral plays an important role in immune function, reproduction, growth, and overall animal health, which is why zinc is routinely included in livestock diets.
When it comes to zinc, is more always better?
Researchers at Penn Vet recently explored this question in gestating dairy cattle and sows in two articles. The studies looked beyond traditional measures of animal health to examine what happens inside the gut. Specifically, they investigated whether feeding higher levels of zinc to pregnant animals changes the gut "microbiome" (the community of microorganisms living in the digestive tract) or the "resistome" (the collection of antimicrobial resistance genes carried by these microorganisms).
This is important because antimicrobial resistance is not influenced by antimicrobial use alone. Metals, such as zinc, can also create selective pressure that favors bacteria carrying antimicrobial resistance genes. Understanding these interactions can help producers and veterinarians consider nutrition as part of a broader approach to animal health and antimicrobial stewardship.
4. The challenge of developing effective African swine fever vaccines
Scientists say improved vaccines and stronger surveillance are needed as the disease threatens pig populations around the world.
The Pirbright Institute
Feedstuffs
October 12, 2026
African swine fever (ASF) is one of the most serious diseases affecting pigs. It can kill almost all infected animals and has caused devastating losses for farmers, businesses and national economies across Europe, Asia and Africa.
Although there is no risk to human health, ASF outbreaks have a major impact on food production and livelihoods. As the disease continues to spread, researchers are working to develop vaccines that can help protect pigs and reduce its impact.
Writing a commentary* in Emerging Microbes & Infections, the Pirbright scientists highlight both the progress made in ASF vaccine development and the challenges faced before vaccines can be used safely and effectively on a wider scale.
[*See: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22221751.2026.2741785?_sp=79850b9a-d731-4ac0-a5b0-08fca851d818.1791833380065 #d1e300 ]
Hope from new vaccines
For many years, developing a vaccine against ASF proved extremely difficult because the virus is unusually large and complex. Recently, researchers have made significant progress with a type of vaccine known as a live attenuated vaccine. These vaccines use a weakened version of the virus that can stimulate an immune response without causing severe disease.
Full text: https://www.feedstuffs.com/swine/the-challenge-of-developing-effective-african-swine-fever-vaccines
5. USDA Targets Herd Rebuilding With Federal Grazing Expansion and $1.8 Billion in Conservation Payments
With the national cattle herd at historic lows, the agency targets dormant federal allotments and expands working grassland enrollment past 40% of all CRP acres.
By Angie Stump Denton
Drovers.com
October 9, 2026
As cattle producers continue navigating tight supplies and historically small herd numbers, USDA unveiled two actions on Oct. 8, 2026, aimed at expanding grazing access and bolstering ranch revenue.
Through administrative action on federal grazing allotments and nearly $1.8 billion in annual conservation payments, the agency is leveraging both public rangelands and private working acres under its overarching "Ranchers First Initiative."
In a letter to livestock producers holding grazing permits on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins outlines the implementation of the department's June 12, 2026, Grazing Directive, urging permittees to put the new framework into practice on their allotments. Concurrently, USDA announced the disbursement of approximately $1.8 billion in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments, driven heavily by Grassland CRP signups designed to keep grazing livestock on working ground.