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Chronic Wasting Disease Drives Population Decline of White-Tailed Deer

Overview of attention for article published in PLOS ONE, August 2016
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (98th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
23 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
policy
1 policy source
twitter
10 X users
facebook
4 Facebook pages

Citations

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122 Dimensions

Readers on

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199 Mendeley
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Title
Chronic Wasting Disease Drives Population Decline of White-Tailed Deer
Published in
PLOS ONE, August 2016
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0161127
Pubmed ID
Authors

David R. Edmunds, Matthew J. Kauffman, Brant A. Schumaker, Frederick G. Lindzey, Walter E. Cook, Terry J. Kreeger, Ronald G. Grogan, Todd E. Cornish

Abstract

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. Despite a 100% fatality rate, areas of high prevalence, and increasingly expanding geographic endemic areas, little is known about the population-level effects of CWD in deer. To investigate these effects, we tested the null hypothesis that high prevalence CWD did not negatively impact white-tailed deer population sustainability. The specific objectives of the study were to monitor CWD-positive and CWD-negative white-tailed deer in a high-prevalence CWD area longitudinally via radio-telemetry and global positioning system (GPS) collars. For the two populations, we determined the following: a) demographic and disease indices, b) annual survival, and c) finite rate of population growth (λ). The CWD prevalence was higher in females (42%) than males (28.8%) and hunter harvest and clinical CWD were the most frequent causes of mortality, with CWD-positive deer over-represented in harvest and total mortalities. Survival was significantly lower for CWD-positive deer and separately by sex; CWD-positive deer were 4.5 times more likely to die annually than CWD-negative deer while bucks were 1.7 times more likely to die than does. Population λ was 0.896 (0.859-0.980), which indicated a 10.4% annual decline. We show that a chronic disease that becomes endemic in wildlife populations has the potential to be population-limiting and the strong population-level effects of CWD suggest affected populations are not sustainable at high disease prevalence under current harvest levels.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 199 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 <1%
Unknown 198 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 35 18%
Researcher 33 17%
Student > Ph. D. Student 27 14%
Student > Bachelor 27 14%
Other 8 4%
Other 26 13%
Unknown 43 22%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 66 33%
Environmental Science 23 12%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 22 11%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 13 7%
Medicine and Dentistry 5 3%
Other 18 9%
Unknown 52 26%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 195. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 March 2024.
All research outputs
#205,003
of 25,591,967 outputs
Outputs from PLOS ONE
#3,035
of 223,182 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,030
of 348,713 outputs
Outputs of similar age from PLOS ONE
#63
of 4,339 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,591,967 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 223,182 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 348,713 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4,339 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.