CHEYENNE, Wyoming – Anyone who recently drove through Sybille Canyon on Highway 34 may have seen what many describe as “giant coffins” in front of the Game and Fish Wildlife Research Center in Sybille.
These are not coffins, but compost bins that will be used for research purposes to evaluate the ability of the composting process to break down the prions that cause chronic wasting disease.
CWD is a chronic, fatal disease of the central nervous system that affects deer, elk and moose. It is caused by abnormally folded proteins called prions. At the beginning of the disease, animals may not show any clinical signs of illness, but as the disease progresses, animals lose weight, become lethargic and eventually die.
A major challenge in the spread of CWD is the ability of prions to persist in the environment. This can lead to years of contamination of habitats and facilitate the spread of the disease to new individuals through the ingestion of contaminated feed.
Previous research has shown that CWD-infected carcasses that naturally decompose in the environment contribute to habitat contamination. This led researchers at Sybille to wonder whether a more robust decomposition process through composting could reduce the amount of CWD prions left behind when an infected animal carcass decomposes.
“Composting creates a highly alkaline environment that can lead to intense microbial activity and high temperatures,” said Brie Hashem, research biologist at Game and Fish. “These conditions promote protein degradation, so we believe CWD prions could be degraded or eliminated through this process. We also added certain materials to the bins that we expect will enhance the composting process.
“Overall, we hope that these containers will create optimal conditions for the degradation of prions from infected moose carcasses.”
Construction of the bins was completed in late May and the composting process began in June. Some bins will contain whole moose carcasses and others will contain moose butcher’s waste to determine if the composting process affects these two forms differently. All bins are equipped with temperature and humidity sensors that allow researchers to monitor composting conditions for the duration of the experiment.
Hashem expects the project to last until September, after which she will test the compost, soil and any liquids produced for the presence of CWD prions.
If the composting process is successful in reducing or eliminating CWD prions, it could provide another mechanism for disposing of CWD-infected carcasses collected from the landscape or harvested by hunters. Current methods for disposing of infected animal carcasses are incineration or landfills. If composting proves successful, additional studies could examine the feasibility of using composting facilities as an additional method for carcass disposal.
With hunting season fast approaching, hunters are encouraged to educate themselves about CWD. Game and Fish will continue its CWD surveillance testing program to track the spread of the disease in deer and elk herds across the state. Any hunter can submit a sample for CWD testing, and certain hunting areas are designated for increased surveillance or mandatory sampling this year.
