Chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids

• Published in: EFSA Journal
• Main Authors: Ricci, Antonia, Allende, Ana, Bolton, Declan, Chemaly, Marianne, Davies, Robert, Fernández Escámez, Pablo Salvador, Gironés, Rosina, Herman, Lieve, Koutsoumanis, Kostas, Lindqvist, Roland, Nørrung, Birgit, Robertson, Lucy, Sanaa, Moez, Skandamis, Panagiotis, Snary, Emma, Speybroeck, Niko, Ter Kuile, Benno, Threlfall, John, Wahlström, Helene, Benestad, Sylvie, Gavierâ€Widen, Dolores, Miller, Michael W, Ru, Giuseppe, Telling, Glenn C, Tryland, Morten, Ortiz Pelaez, Angel, Simmons, Marion, EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ)
• Other Authors: UCL - SSS/IRSS - Institut de recherche santé et société
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) 2017
• Subjects: Cervids; Surveillance; Risk; Introduction; Spread; Chronic; Wasting; Norway; Iceland; Tundra
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/184476; https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4667

In April and May of 2016, Norway con ï¬rmed two cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a wildreindeer and a wild moose, respectively. In the light of this emerging issue, the European Commissionrequested EFSA to recommend surveillance act ivities and, if necessary, additional animal healthrisk-based measures to prevent the introduction of the disease and the spread into/withi n the EU,speciï¬cally Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland and Sweden, and consideringseven wild, semidomesticated and farmed cervid species (Eurasian tundra reindeer, Finnish (Eurasian)forest reindeer, moose, roe deer, white-tailed deer, red deer and fallow deer). It was also asked toassess any new evidence on possible public health risks related to CWD. A 3-year surveillance systemis proposed, differing for farmed and wild or semidomesticated cervids, with a two-stage samplingprogramme at the farm/geographically based population unit level (random samp ling) and individuallevel (convenience sampling targeting high-risk animals). The current derogations of CommissionImplementing Decision (EU) 2016/1918 present a risk of introduction of CWD into the EU. Measures toprevent the spread of CWD within the EU are dependent upon the assumption that the disease isalready present; this is currently unknown. The measures listed are intended to contain (limit thegeographic extent of a focus) and/or to contro l (acti vely stabilise/reduce infection rates in an affectedherd or population) the disease where it occurs. With regard to the zoonotic potential, the humanspecies barrier for CWD prions does not appear to be absolute. These prions are present in theskeletal muscle and other edible tissues, so humans may consume infected material in enzootic areas.Epidemiological investigations carried out to date make no association between the occurrence ofsporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans and exposure to CWD prions