Distribution of prion seeding activity in CWD-infected white-tailed deer.

We performed real-time, quaking-induced conversion with NaPTA pre-treatment on homogenates of the same tissues in CWD-inoculated white-tailed deer. We included 5 deer that were euthanized in symptomatic stages of disease and 3 deer that were euthanized 4 months after oral inoculation with CWD-positive brain tissue (4mpi, no signs of CWD). We compared inoculated deer to CWD-negative deer; for a tissue to be designated as positive, it must have been significantly different from the negative control tissue tested in the same experiment (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney or Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests, p<0.05). We have listed the number of positive deer/ number of total deer in this table. The darker shades indicate tissues where a greater proportion of deer were positive. Clear wells had no positive results. We classified tissues into lymphoid or alimentary categories. We tested the obex region of the brainstem to assess whether the deer had reached the neuroinvasion stage.