continues to increasingly and adversely affect the economic well-being of rural communities, the hunting public, farmed cervid producers, and State wildlife and agricultural agencies, because the only known measure for reducing the spread of chronic wasting disease is the complete depopulation of herds that test positive for the disease, a drastic measure which comes with great costs for all. (9) The long-term environmental persistence of chronic wasting disease’s causative agent means that State wildlife management agencies, State departments of agriculture, and private cervid farmers have relatively few options to mitigate the effects of such disease. (10) There are ongoing debates about the predominant transmission pathways that are causing the new detections and continued spread of chronic wasting disease in cervids across the United States and Canada. 3. Chronic wasting disease transmission in cervidae resource study (a) Study (1) In general The Secretaries shall enter into an arrangement with the Academy under which the Academy shall conduct, and submit to the Secretaries a report— (A) describing the findings of, a special resource study to identify the predominant pathways and mechanisms of the transmission of chronic wasting disease in wild, captive, and farmed populations of cervids in the United States