Bloodgood, J., Kiupel, M., Melotti, J., & Straka, K. (2020). Chronic Wasting Disease Diagnostic Discrepancies: The Importance of Testing Both Medial Retropharyngeal Lymph Nodes. Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
Study Highlights:
The study examined left and right medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes (MRPLN) from 101 ELISA-positive deer harvested from 2015 to 2019.
Prion protein was not detected in either MRPLN in 5.9% of ELISA-positive cases.
An additional 5.9% of cases had one positive MRPLN, whereas the contralateral MRPLN was negative.
Testing a single MRPLN for CWD may lead to false-negative results, regardless of methodology, which highlights the importance of collecting and testing both MRPLN.
