{"id":423883,"date":"2026-01-22T23:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423883\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T23:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T23:42:07","slug":"oregons-elk-show-genetic-fortitude-against-a-fast-moving-and-deadly-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/423883\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon\u2019s elk show genetic fortitude against a fast-moving and deadly disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Oregon is one of the last remaining safe zones from chronic wasting disease, a fatal illness that has killed tens of thousands of deer, elk and moose across North America<\/a>. Of the western states, only Oregon, Nevada and Arizona have yet to register a case. <\/p>\n

And now research suggests that at least some animals in Oregon may have a natural genetic resistance to the disease. <\/p>\n

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) affects members of the deer family, spreading through close contact between animals. There isn\u2019t a cure, and those infected experience extreme weight loss, also known as wasting, loss of coordination, and drooling. It\u2019s always fatal. <\/p>\n

CWD is a neurologic disease caused by infectious proteins called prions that are also responsible for diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob<\/a> in humans and mad cow disease<\/a>. But unlike mad cow disease, there isn\u2019t evidence that CWD can spread to humans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE \u2014 Wildlife managers are concerned about the spread of always-fatal chronic wasting disease through deer and elk across the region. An Oregon bull elk is shown in this 2005 photo.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/p>\n

Chronic wasting just recently arrived in the Pacific Northwest. It was detected in Idaho<\/a> for the first time in 2021 and in Washington<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

So far, Oregon has been spared, but it\u2019s only a matter of time. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife predicts<\/a> the disease could cause major declines in deer and elk populations in the state. The agency is working with hunters to test and monitor<\/a> for CWD introduction on the ground. <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s new evidence that the eventual spread of CWD in Oregon may be slowed because of genetic good fortune.<\/p>\n

Researchers from ODFW<\/a>, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign<\/a>, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab<\/a> in Ashland conducted genetic testing on 183 elk across Oregon. They found that a large percentage of the two subspecies have a genetic variation associated with resistance to the disease. <\/p>\n

Testing showed 42% of Oregon\u2019s coastal Roosevelt elk and 49% of the Rocky Mountain elk had the genetic marker. The study authors say these rates are higher than they\u2019ve seen in other states. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout advantageous genetic variants, a whole population can be wiped out fairly quickly,\u201d University of Illinois researcher Alfred Roca said in a university announcement. \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to prevent the spread of CWD once it enters the state, but it may slow it down a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

These biological speed bumps could give wildlife managers more time to prepare and to step in to control the disease when they find infected animals. <\/p>\n

The research is published in the Journal of Heredity here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In these All Science Snapshots, \u201cAll Science. No Fiction<\/a>.\u201d creator Jes Burns features the most interesting, wondrous and hopeful science coming out of the Pacific Northwest. <\/p>\n

Find full episodes of \u201cAll Science. No Fiction.\u201d here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oregon is one of the last remaining safe zones from chronic wasting disease, a fatal illness that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[201936,79,201],"class_list":["post-423883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-all-science-no-fiction-science-environment","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}