COYOTES (CANIS LATRANS) MITIGATE ENVIRONMENTAL ACCUMULATION OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE PRIONS

Abstract

Understanding natural processes that influence the spread of pathogens is of great societal and ecological value. Scavengers can play critical ecological roles in epidemiological processes and are assumed to influence environmental transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal prion disease of cervids with extended environmental persistence. As a primary scavenger of cervid carrion in North America, evaluating the role of coyotes (Canis latrans) in CWD environmental transmission is of interest and has management implications. To assess the role of coyotes in CWD transmission, we fed eight adult coyotes three concentrations of CWD-positive brain homogenate: low (5.00×104 SD50 units total), moderate (5.00×106 SD50 units total), and high (5.00×108 SD50 units total) to approximate CWD exposure levels of coyotes in the wild from consumption of different tissues in end-stage infected cervids. We used real-time quaking-induced conversion to determine the relative amount of prions in coyote feces post-passage, as well as to test coyote tissues for prions post-mortem. Across all dosages, coyotes excreted an estimated mean of