They care. They really care!

That seems to be the result of polling done by Ellen Goddard and her colleagues on managing Chronic Wasting Disease in Canada. Ellen is a professor in the Faculty of Environmental Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Alberta.

She is concerned about the speed at which CWD is spreading, but sees some encouraging trends in how landowners, hunters, First Nations, and urban populations perceive the problem. Along with several other researchers she recently published a paper in Environmental Science & Policy that highlights public attitudes on the choices available for managing the always fatal prion disease. “Public preferences for options to manage chronic wasting disease in Canada” suggests that not only do Canadians want action, but there was “remarkable homogeneity of preference across different segments of society”.

Now in part 2, Ellen talks about the factors which influence how we view CWD management practices and the culling of deer to control the spread of the prion disease.

Some related links you might want to check:

• From our podcast pages: Bringing First Nations experience into CWD research
• Chronic wasting disease: what you need to know
• Our funded project on Systems Biology & Molecular Ecology of Chronic Wasting Disease
• Chronic Wasting Disease – Updates from the Government of Alberta