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PrP genotypes of free-ranging wapiti (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) with chronic wasting disease

¹ Roslin Institute, Neuropathogenesis Unit, Edinburgh, UK
² Wildlife Research Center, Colorado Division of Wildlife, Fort Collins, CO, USA

Correspondence
Wilfred Goldmann
wilfred.goldmann{at}roslin.ed.ac.uk

Variation in PrP prion gene sequence appears to modulate susceptibility to chronic wasting disease (CWD), a naturally occurring prion disease affecting four North American species of the family Cervidae. Wapiti (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) PrP is polymorphic at codon 132 [methionine (M) or leucine (L)]. We genotyped 171 samples, collected between 2002 and 2005 from CWD-infected and uninfected wapiti from three free-ranging populations in Colorado, USA, to study influences of PrP polymorphisms on CWD susceptibility further. Overall genotype frequencies for 124 apparently uninfected animals were 65.3 % MM₁₃₂, 32.3 % ML₁₃₂ and 2.4 % LL₁₃₂; for 47 CWD-infected animals, these frequencies were 70.2 % MM₁₃₂, 27.7 % ML₁₃₂ and 2.1 % LL₁₃₂. Surprisingly, our data revealed that, among recent (approx. 2002–2005) CWD cases detected in free-ranging Colorado wapiti, the three PrP codon 132 genotypes were represented in proportion to their abundance in sampled populations (P0.24) and all three genotypes showed equivalent susceptibility to infection.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the wapiti PrP haplotype sequences determined in this study are EU032288–EU032294.