Acta Virologica Vol.52, No.4, p.209-218, 2008

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is the only known prion disease affecting free-ranging animals and has become a serious epidemic in North America. Although any case was reported from Europe, the spread of the disease to other continents and regions cannot be excluded, because the transmission of CWD is the most efficient among prion diseases. This article reviews the host range of CWD including experimentally infected animals, models for potential transmissibility to humans, clinical signs of the disease, pathogenesis, and methods for CWD detection.