Cooperative Agreement for Affiliated Partner with the Pacific Northwest Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU)

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in the study of chronic wasting disease (CWD) to support its prevention and management in the northeastern, and western United States. This project builds on several existing projects in direct collaboration with natural resource agencies where, in many locations, chronic wasting disease is not yet widespread and endemic. In order to better plan for the eventual spread into the region and its wide-ranging effects, this project would focus on strategic planning for CWD management as a long-term endeavor focused on repeated, linked management decisions that span two disease states (disease-free and disease-present) and recurring decisions on surveillance, regulatory actions (e.g., harvest policy, bans on harvested animal transport and carcass disposal), and targeted actions (e.g., hunter outreach, culling). The goal of thisproject is to support those long-term management efforts by developing decision support tools that estimate the arrival of CWD, the spread and growth of disease in new locations, and the opportunities that agencies have in preventing its effects.

The USGS has…