A dot blot ELISA test for CWD, developed by VMRD, Inc., was licensed for CWD testing.

A dot blot ELISA test for CWD, developed by VMRD, Inc., has been licensed for CWD testing. The test uses the retropharyngeal lymph nodes and has a turnaround time of approximately 24 hours. Cost for a test kit that will run approximately 960 samples is $4,300. However, the sensitivity of this test is only 91.5%, which means that about 1 in ten positives may be missed. This is not close enough for accurate monitoring of CWD in populations of wild cervids in the opinion of many wildlife managers. Also, the certification was based on only 298 samples. Additional information on this test is available at the VMRD website: www.vmrd.com.

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