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Short abstract

This paper examines Norwegian wild reindeer as contested epistemic frontier amid Chronic Wasting Disease. I show how genetic research and biosecurity concerns turn wild reindeer into a new epistemic object subject to virtual 'risk', where mitigative efforts lead to a blurring between wild and tame.

Long abstract

This paper engages Norwegian wild reindeer as an ‘epistemic frontier’ in the context of Chronic Wasting Disease and the planned re-introduction of reindeer into a specific mountain landscape.

In March 2016, the first ever European case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was identified a wild reindeer from Nordfjella in Western Norway. This set in motion a wide range of preventative measures, including the preemptive eradication of 2500 wild reindeer in the Nordfjella mountain area in 2017/2018. Because of CWD’s uncanny ability to remain infectious in soil for years on end, Nordfjella was to remain without wild reindeer for five years before a planned reintroduction.

However, due to continuing uncertainties surrounding the persistence of CWD prions in Nordfjella soil, this has not materialised. Together with new genetic research indicating that semi-domesticated reindeer are more resistant to CWD than wild reindeer, the planned reintroduction has become a contentious site of competing scientific reasoning and divergent enactments of wild reindeer through different epistemic regimes.

While some experts argue for “building a new wild herd” using semi-domesticated reindeer because of their "genetic resilience", others stress the importance of “retaining original genetics”. For those involved, vexing questions concern what should matter more; future security or past genetics, and whether one can 'build' a wild herd using semi-domesticated reindeer. Turning to the blurred history of wild and semi-domesticated reindeer in the area, I contextualise the current discussions in relation to past histories of mountain transhumance and the shifting uses outfields.