Reported cases of<unk>  in North America, as of 2018 North America The<unk>  was first identified in 1967 in a closed herd of captive mule deer in contiguous portions of northeastern Colorado. In 1980, the<unk>  was determined to be a TSE. It was first identified in wild elk and mule deer and white-tailed deer in the early 1980s in Colorado and Wyoming, and in farmed elk in 1997. The<unk>  did not affect Canada until 1996. In May 2001,<unk>  was also found in free-ranging deer in the southwestern corner of Nebraska (adjacent to Colorado and Wyoming) and later in additional areas in western Nebraska. The limited area of northern Colorado, southern Wyoming, and western Nebraska in which free-ranging deer, moose, and/or elk positive for<unk>  have been found is referred to as the endemic area. The area in 2006 has expanded to six states, including parts of eastern Utah, southwestern South Dakota, and northwestern Kansas. Also, areas not contiguous (to the endemic area) areas in central Utah and central Nebraska have been found. The limits of the affected areas are not well defined, since the<unk>  is at a low incidence and the amount of sampling may not be adequate to detect it. In 2002,<unk>  was detected in wild deer in south-central Wisconsin and northern Illinois and in an isolated area of southern New Mexico. In 2005, it was found in wild white-tailed deer in New York and in Hampshire County, West Virginia. In 2008, the first confirmed case of<unk>  in Michigan was discovered in an infected deer on an enclosed deer-breeding facility. It is also found in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In February 2011, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources reported the first confirmed case of the<unk>  in that state. The affected animal was a white-tailed deer killed by a hunter.<unk>  has also been diagnosed in farmed elk and deer herds in a number of states and in two Canadian provinces. The first positive farmed-elk herd in the United States was detected in 1997 in South Dakota. Since then, additional positive elk herds and farmed white-tailed deer herds have been found in South Dakota (7), Nebraska (4), Colorado (10), Oklahoma (1), Kansas (1), Minnesota (3), Montana (1), Wisconsin (6), and New York (2). As of fall of 2006, four positive elk herds in Colorado and a positive white-tailed deer herd in Wisconsin remain under state quarantine. All of the other herds have been depopulated or have been slaughtered and tested, and the quarantine has been lifted from one herd that underwent rigorous surveillance with no further evidence of<unk> .<unk>  also has been found in farmed elk in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. A retrospective study also showed mule deer exported from Denver to the Toronto Zoo in the 1980s were affected. In June 2015, the<unk>  was detected in a male white-tailed deer on a breeding ranch in Medina County, Texas. State officials euthanized 34 deer in an effort to contain a possible outbreak. In February 2018, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks announced that a Mississippi deer tested positive for<unk> . Another Mississippi whitetail euthanized in Pontotoc County on 8 October 2018 tested positive for<unk> . The<unk>  was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa on 30 October 2018. Species that have been affected with<unk>  include elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, and moose. Other ruminant species, including wild ruminants and domestic cattle, sheep, and goats, have been housed in wildlife facilities in direct or indirect contact with<unk> -affected deer and elk, with no evidence of<unk>  transmission. However, experimental transmission of<unk>  into other ruminants by intracranial inoculation does result in<unk> , suggesting only a weak molecular species barrier exists. Research is ongoing to further explore the possibility of transmission of<unk>  to other species. By April 2016,<unk>  had been found in captive animals in South Korea; the<unk>  arrived there with live elk that were imported from Canada for farming in the late 1990s. In the summer of 2018, cases were discovered in the Harpur Farm herd in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, Quebec. Over the course of 2018 fully 12% of the mule deer that were tested in Alberta, had a positive result. More than 8% of Alberta deer were deemed seropositive. Europe In 2016, the first case of<unk>  in Europe was from the Nordfjella wild reindeer herd in southern Norway. Scientists found the<unk> d female reindeer as it was dying, and routine<unk>  screening at necropsy was unexpectedly positive. The origin of<unk>  in Norway is unknown, whereas import of infected deer from Canada was the source of<unk>  cases in South Korea. Norway has strict legislation and rules not allowing importation of live animals and deer into the country. Norway has a scrapie surveillance program since 1997; while no reports of scrapie within the range of Nordfjella reindeer population have been identified, sheep are herded through that region and are a potential source of infection. In May and June 2016, two infected wild moose (Alces alces) were found around 300 km north from the first case, in Selbu. By the end of August, a fourth case had been confirmed in a wild reindeer shot in the same area as the first case in March. In 2017, the Environment Agency of the Norwegian government released guidelines for hunters hunting reindeer in the Nordfjella areas. The guidelines contain information on identifying animals with<unk>  symptoms and instructions for minimizing the risk of contamination, as well as a list of supplies given to hunters to be used for taking and submitting samples from shot reindeer. In March 2018, Finnish Food Safety Authority EVIRA stated that the first case of<unk>  in Finland had been diagnosed in a 15-year-old moose (Alces alces) that had died naturally in the municipality of Kuhmo in the Kainuu region. Before this case in Kuhmo, Norway was the only country in the European Economic Area where<unk>  has been diagnosed. The moose did not have the transmissible North American form of the<unk> , but similar to the Norwegian variant of<unk> , an atypical or sporadic form which occurs incidentally in individual animals of the deer family. In Finland,<unk>  screening of fallen wild deer has been done since 2003. None of the roughly 2,500 samples analyzed so far have tested positive for the<unk> . The export of live animals of the deer family to other countries has been temporarily banned as a precautionary measure to stop the spread of the<unk> , and moose hunters are going to be provided with more instructions before the start of the next hunting season, if appropriate. The export and sales of meat from deer will not be restricted and moose meat is considered safe to eat as only the brain and nervous tissue of infected moose contains prions. In March 2019, the Swedish National Veterinary Institute (SVA) diagnosed the first case of<unk>  in Sweden. A 16-year old emaciated female moose was found in the municipality of Arjeplog in the county of Norrbotten, circling and with loss of shyness towards humans, possibly blind. The moose was euthanized and the head was sent for<unk>  screening in the national<unk>  surveillance program. The brainstem tissue, but not lymph nodes, was positive for<unk>  (confirmed with Western Blot). A second case of<unk>  was diagnosed in May 2019, with very similar case history, about 70 km east of the first case. This second case, in the municipality of Arvidsjaur, was also an emaciated and apathic 16-year-old female moose that was euthanized. The circumstances of these Swedish cases are similar to the<unk>  cases in moose in both Norway and Finland. The EU regulated<unk>  surveillance runs between 2018 - 2020. A minimum of 6 000 deer are to be tested, both free-ranging animals in the deer family, farmed red deer, and semi-domesticated reindeer. The finding of<unk> -positive moose initiated an intensified surveillance in the affected municipalities. Adult hunter-harvested moose and slaughtered semi-domesticated reindeer from the area are tested for<unk> . In September 2019, a third moose was found positive for<unk> , a hunter-harvested 10-year-old apparently healthy female moose from Arjeplog. A fourth case of<unk>  in moose was verified in September 2020, in a euthanized 14-year-old lame and unshy female moose in the municipality of Robertsfors, in the county of Västerbotten, approximately 200 km from the previous moose cases in the neighboring county of Norrbotten.
Chronic wasting disease
Chronic critical illness
Protein–energy malnutrition
Infection-induced anorexia
Renal osteodystrophy
Protein poisoning
Water intoxication
Nutritional challenges of HIV/AIDS