The Generative Brain

APRI funded CWD transmission study in cynomolgus macaques (Lethbridge, Calgary and German Primate Center)

This is a long running animal experiment that asked whether chronic wasting disease (CWD), the prion disease of deer and elk, can pass to primates, as a proxy for risk to people. The Alberta Prion Research Institute (APRI) announced 3.5 million euros for it in November 2007, with coordination from a Lethbridge laboratory, the German Primate Center (DPZ) as European coordinator and partners including the NIH laboratory in Hamilton, Montana. Health Canada cited initial results in April 2017 from what it called a CFIA scientist led project, without changing its food advice. The study was published in Science Advances on 27 May 2026 by a team led from the Calgary Prion Research Unit at the University of Calgary, with UTHealth Houston, Saarland University, DPZ and the Robert Koch Institute. Eighteen female cynomolgus macaques housed at DPZ were given deer and elk prions by mouth or into the brain. Most stayed free of signs and standard tests were negative, but sensitive seeding tests found low prion levels, and tissue from the macaques caused disease in mice and bank voles on further passage. The authors say this weakens the view that CWD has no zoonotic potential, while stating that efficient transmission to primates was not shown. No human CWD case is known. Information only, not medical advice.

Status as of 2026-10-17. Please check the study registry for the latest position.

Key facts

  • In November 2007 CORDIS reported a 3.5 million euro APRI grant for an international primate study of whether CWD from game meat can reach humans, coordinated from a Lethbridge laboratory (which CORDIS placed at the University of Calgary) with DPZ as European coordinator and partners including NIH in Hamilton, the Robert Koch Institute and the French CEA.
  • In April 2017 Health Canada described initial results of an APRI and Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency funded macaque project led by a CFIA scientist, reporting transmission by brain and oral routes; it treated the data as not yet peer reviewed and kept its precautionary advice.
  • The published paper lists six APRI (Alberta Innovates) grants, 200700047, 201300011, 201600009, 201600022, 201600023 and 232403456, plus NIH grants R01 NS121016 and P01 AI077774, a Lower Saxony ministry grant and Genome Canada.
  • The 17 authors are affiliated with the Calgary Prion Research Unit and Hotchkiss Brain Institute (University of Calgary), the Mitchell Center at UTHealth Houston, Saarland University, DPZ and the Robert Koch Institute; the two corresponding authors, Stefanie Czub and Hermann Schaetzl, are listed under Calgary only, and there is no CFIA or Lethbridge affiliation or acknowledgement.
  • A 2013 award profile describes Czub as manager of the prion, pathology, virology and wildlife disease units at CFIA Lethbridge and an adjunct professor at the University of Calgary, which fits both the CORDIS wording and Health Canada's description of a CFIA led project. Whether CFIA itself had a formal role is still not stated in any source opened.
  • Design: 18 female cynomolgus macaques of Mauritian origin, about 4 years old at challenge and all methionine homozygous at PRNP codon 129, inoculated orally or intracerebrally (including steel wire implants) with elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer material of US and Canadian origin; 3 controls received CWD negative cervid material; animals were housed at DPZ in Goettingen under Lower Saxony licences and University of Calgary animal care protocols.
  • CIDRAP reports that inoculations were done in 2009 and that the work took 18 years, partly because of funding gaps and staff moving between institutions. Search excerpts of 2017 press coverage also give 2009 as the start.
  • The paper reports 7 early euthanised CWD inoculated animals plus controls, followed up to 7.5 years; its own text is inconsistent (seven versus eight animals, 4.5 to 7.5 versus 4 to 10 years).
  • Two macaques, one oral and one intracerebral, showed neurological signs; immunoblot, histology and immunohistochemistry of brain were negative or inconclusive; PMCA found seeding activity in the brains of all tested inoculated animals and in some spleens; RT-QuIC found low and inconsistent seeding.
  • Passage results: up to 20 percent attack rate in elk PrP transgenic mice on first passage; 100 percent attack rate with protease resistant PrP in bank voles on second passage; 100 percent infection when vole material was passed to deer PrP mice.
  • The authors say the data challenge earlier conclusions of minimal zoonotic risk from primate studies, including the NIH Rocky Mountain Laboratories macaque work published in 2014 and 2018, but do not show efficient transmission, and they cannot fully exclude residual inoculum as the source of the signal. Outside experts quoted by CIDRAP agree efficient transmission was not shown; CDC's prion office notes hunter studies have found no CWD in people.
  • Two Houston authors and UTHealth itself declare financial ties to Amprion, which sells PMCA based tests.
  • The macaque work sits in the Schaetzl prion lab at Calgary, where a research assistant co-author is listed as working on CWD transmission in macaques.

Timeline

  1. 2007CORDIS reports the 3.5 million euro APRI grant and the Lethbridge, Calgary and DPZ coordination.
  2. 2009Macaques inoculated (CIDRAP; press excerpts).
  3. 2017Health Canada risk opinion cites initial results of the macaque project.
  4. 2019Press excerpt reports subtle, transient signs in some macaques and a planned end in March 2020.
  5. 2025Manuscript received by Science Advances.
  6. 2026Manuscript accepted.
  7. 2026Paper published in Science Advances (PMID 42202024).
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