Post provided by Hildegunn Viljugrein

©Alexandre Buisse

The discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Norway in 2016 has led to extensive measures and testing of deer in Norway. Since 2018 there have been similar measures within the EU. But how many deer need to be tested before we can be (almost) certain that a population is not infected by CWD?

In our article – ‘A method that accounts for differential detectability in mixed samples of long‐term infections with applications to the case of Chronic Wasting Disease in cervids’ – we provide important tools for estimation of prevalence and likelihood of finding infected animals in a given population. The paper is a result of a collaborative work between a multidisciplinary group of scientists from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and Prof. Atle Mysterud from Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo. Continue reading →