Large-scale study revealing the population impacts the prion disease on deer wins in the Wildlife Research and Surveys category
A large-scale study examining the impacts of chronic wasting disease on deer in Wisconsin has won The Wildlife Society’s 2025 Wildlife Restoration Award.
The awards are granted to outstanding projects supported by Wildlife Restoration funds (also known as Pittman-Robertson funds) and associated nonfederal matching funds. The Southwest Wisconsin Chronic Wasting Disease, Deer and Predator Study won in the Wildlife Research and Surveys category—one of the two possible awards up for grabs each year in the Wildlife Restoration Awards.
Managers first detected chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the southwestern part of Wisconsin in 2001. Following this finding, scientists began to examine factors that could affect deer survival in that area—everything from CWD itself to hunting, predation and habitat suitability.
The first phase of the study, which spanned from 2016 to 2020, involved collaring deer, collecting data, engaging with the community and creating models to determine the ecological effects of the disease. About 1,000 volunteers helped capture and collar 1,200 animals with tracking devices, and nearly 400 landowners provided researchers access to their property.
Phase two, which began in 2020 and continues today, involves tracking deaths, analyzing data and publishing the study’s findings and results.
Prior studies found that CWD curbed cervid populations in the intermountain West, but no studies examined the impact of CWD on the productive and abundant white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) populations east of the Great Plains until this long-term Wisconsin project.
The results include the finding that “CWD is substantially reducing the annual survival probability of both male and female white-tailed deer,” said Wendy Turner from the U.S. Geological Survey and Scott Hull from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in their nomination letter. While conducted in Wisconsin, they added that the findings have relevance across the range of white-tailed deer and for other cervid species affected by CWD. Areas with high prevalence of CWD also likely cause a decline in deer populations.
The team has communicated its work on CWD via more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies as well as podcasts, newsletters and webinars.
“The results of this study have broad implications for understanding and managing deer populations in the face of the increasing prevalence of CWD across North America,” the nominators wrote.
Daniel Storm, the project leader in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Applied Science, said that it’s “very gratifying” to get recognition for the project. “It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears from a lot of great people to accomplish what we did.”
He thanked collaborators, including the USGS Cooperative Wildlife Research Units at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Montana, and at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.
“This project demonstrates the critical value of the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area in adding capacity to state agency-led research projects,” Storm said. “It really is a textbook example of what can be accomplished when state natural resource agencies and USGS work together.”
