Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of cervids that belongs to the greater classification of TSE/prion diseases [e.g. bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle (Bos taurus), scrapie in sheep (Ovis aries) and goats (Capra hircus), feline spongiform encephalopathy in felids, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans (Homo sapiens)], which is caused by the aggregation of a misfolded isoform (PrPCWD) of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) [1,2]. The gene discussed is PRNP; the disease is human prion disease.