Category Archives: disease

Crayfish Can Spread Chytrid Fungus

Posted on by
Reply

crayfishA study by University of South Florida scientists, published online ahead of publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that crayfish are capable of being infected by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a chytrid fungus implicated in a worldwide amphibian die-off. Further, the study found a positive correlation between the presence of crayfish in Colorado wetlands and chytrid infections in amphibians.

Read the PNAS abstract here, in PubMed. (Reading the paper itself requires a subscription or fee.)

There is a summary of the finding on Smithsonian.com. Read it here. It was that article that attracted the attention of ProMED, which also published a fairly interesting comment. (Read that here.)

Photo: A crayfish in the family Astacidae, which does not include the crayfish species mentioned in the paper, but come on, it’s a crayfish. By Eric Engbretson, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Back in September we mentioned a paper in The Southwestern Naturalist that found a correlation between chytrid infection in amphibians and the presence of bullfrogs and crayfish in wetlands in Mexico. (Personally, I would have bet on the bullfrogs, which have been found to be resistant to chytrid, but both are invasive in the area studied.)

 

Model Predicts WNS Peak

Posted on by
Reply

little brown bat with white nose syndrome on cave wallA study published recently in Nature Communications models the spread of white nose syndrome in bats, says a press release from the University of Georgia. The model that fits the history of the disease’s dispersal across the United States, predicts a peak in infections in 2015-2016. It also predicts that caves most areas of the United States will have the WNS fungus within 100 years. The model does not include data from Canada.

The model shows that cold winters and the existence of caves are the key factors in where the disease is found.

Read the University of Georgia press release here.
Read the Nature Communications abstract, here. (A subscription or fee is required to access the full article.)

Photo: Little brown bat with white nose syndrome, courtesy of Missouri Dept. of Conservation.

Moose of “Special Concern” in Minn.

Posted on by
Reply

mooseThe the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ list of endangered, threatened and special concern species is due to get its first update since 1996, a DNR press release reports. While 302 Minnesota species will be affected, moose are getting all the attention.

The iconic north woods animal is proposed for listing as a species of special concern. The designation reflects a 50 percent decline in the number of moose in the state since 2005, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. There are now about 4,000 moose in the state.

What is causing the rapid decline is still a bit of a mystery, but a combination of disease, parasites and a warming climate appear to be the causes, the Star-Tribune notes.

CBC News reports University of Minnesota Duluth biologist Ron Moen as saying that wildlife managers in Ontario should keep an eye out for their own moose. The southern part of western Ontario shares a border with Minnesota.

As for why the gray wolf’s delisting in the other direction, from special concern to not on the list, is not receiving much attention, that’s because this year’s wolf hunting season (and the federal delisting) packed more punch than this proposed delisting.

Read the Star-Tribune article here.
Read the Minn. DNR press release here.
Get more details about the list changes, here.

Photo: Moose, courtesy MN DNR

Bat Fungus Sticks Around

Posted on by
Reply

WhiteNoseBat_scientist08Wisconsin researchers have confirmed that Geomyces destructans, the fungus that causes white nose syndrome (WNS) in bats, persists in caves long after all the bats in the cave have died off.

A paper published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology also says that because the fungus has been found in all the caves that have had WNS outbreaks, but is not found in caves beyond the region where WNS has been found, the findings support the hypothesis that the fungus is an exotic species in North America.

The paper is particularly bad news in light of recent reports of bats repopulating caves where WNS had struck years ago.

A University of Wisconsin-Madison press release offers one tiny bit of good news. Bats that hibernate in near-freezing conditions seem to fare better than bats hibernating in conditions a few degrees warmer. David Blehert, a microbiologist at the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center in Madison and a lead researcher on the paper, says that the fungus grows much slower at those low temperatures.

Read the abstract in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. (The full article requires a subscription or fee.)Read the University of Wisconsin press release here.

Photo: A biologist takes samples from a cave in an early attempt to determine the cause of the deadly white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats. Courtesy of  USGS National Wildlife Health Center

Hunting and Food Safety

Posted on by
Reply

hunting at sunsetMost of the news from state wildlife agencies across the country this week are about hunting: seasons opening and closing, whether the numbers are up or down for a particular season. For the folks at the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Center, that’s a good reason to take a look at food-safety issues associated with hunter-killed wildlife.

For the most part, the news is good. Taking care when field dressing and butchering the meat avoids the most common problems, they say. The occasional wound or parasite is to be expected, the entry says, and is no cause for alarm.

For all the details, plus a link to common sense wild meat handling guidelines, see the CCWHC blog entry, here.

We’ll hear more from the CCWHC blog on Monday.

Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife

Talking Turkey

Posted on by
Reply

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wildlife Health Unit is asking turkey hunters to be on the lookout for lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV). The virus, which causes lesions similar to the ones seen in the oh-so-common avian pox, was first confirmed in New York this spring.

Perhaps because of its resemblance to avian pox, LPDV has only been discovered in wild turkeys in the United States recently, when it had previously only been known in domestic turkeys in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, according to the quarterly newsletter from the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. The newsletter also suggests that LPDV is more likely to cause lesions or nodules on a turkey’s legs or feet than the more common avian pox is.

Read the NYS DEC’s first request for more information on LPDV, here. (2nd item)
Read the department’s more recent request, here.
Read the Southern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Briefs, here. It includes some details about what LPDV looks like under a microscope.

There will be no State Wildlife Research News on Thursday or Friday of this week because of the holiday. Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Photo: a healthy Rio Grande wild turkey, photographed  by Robert Burton, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. (For a photo of LPDV, see the NYS DEC write-up or the newsletter, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.)

Talking Turkey

Posted on by
Reply

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Wildlife Health Unit is asking turkey hunters to be on the lookout for lymphoproliferative disease virus (LPDV). The virus, which causes lesions similar to the ones seen in the oh-so-common avian pox, was first confirmed in New York this spring.

Perhaps because of its resemblance to avian pox, LPDV has only been discovered in wild turkeys in the United States recently, when it had previously only been known in domestic turkeys in the United Kingdom and the Middle East, according to the quarterly newsletter from the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. The newsletter also suggests that LPDV is more likely to cause lesions or nodules on a turkey’s legs or feet than the more common avian pox is.

Read the NYS DEC’s first request for more information on LPDV, here. (2nd item)
Read the department’s more recent request, here.
Read the Southern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study Briefs, here. It includes some details about what LPDV looks like under a microscope.

There will be no State Wildlife Research News on Thursday or Friday of this week because of the holiday. Have a very happy Thanksgiving!

Photo: a healthy Rio Grande wild turkey, photographed  by Robert Burton, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. (For a photo of LPDV, see the NYS DEC write-up or the newsletter, but don’t say we didn’t warn you.)

Wyoming Won’t Cull Deer After CWD Found

Posted on by
Reply

deer with chronic wasting diseaseChronic wasting disease (CWD), a prion disease affecting deer, has been found in a new region of Wyoming, about 40 miles away from an area in Utah where CWD had recently been found.

A Wyoming Game & Fish Department press release says that the state will not try to reduce the number of deer in the area where the diseased deer was found. This technique was successfully used in New York State, which may be the only place CWD has been eradicated after it had been found in wild deer populations.

The Wyoming release cites research from Wisconsin and Colorado showing that the technique doesn’t work as its reason for not using it.

Read the press release here.

Photo: deer with chronic wasting disease. It’s teeny tiny because nobody wants to get a good look at a sick deer. Courtesy of the US Department of Agriculture

Deer Health

Posted on by
Reply

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture announced the first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer there last week. As you may guess from the state department issuing the news, CWD was found in captive deer.

CWD had been found in New York, which borders Pennsylvania, several years ago and is believed to be eradicated there. But there have been more recent incidents in West Virginia and Maryland, which also border the state.

(My rough measurements show the Pennsylvania case as being about 40 miles from where CWD was found in Maryland and West Virginia.)

Read the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture press release here. (It’s a PDF).
Read an article in the Lehigh Valley Morning Call, here.

In other deer health news, Louisiana State Wildlife Division chief Kenny Ribbeck told the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission last week that Hurricane Isaac killed up to 90 percent of the deer fawns in the Maurepas Basin, according to an Associated Press article that you can read in The Oregonian. Deer hunting in the region has been adjusted as a result.

And in the category of “when is no news actually news” the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre notes in its blog that epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) came awfully close to Canada this year. The midge that spreads EHD is not found in Canada, it says, but the disease may move north with the midge because of climate change. It also notes that because the disease has never struck there, the outbreak may be severe.

Read the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre blog post, here.

Photo: Joe Kosack/Pennsylvania Game Commission

Penn. Abandons Bat Petition

Posted on by
Reply

little brown bat with white nose syndrome on cave wallThe article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette seemed a little harsh, claiming that the Pennsylvania Game Commission caved to industry pressure when it abandoned its petition to list bat species that had been affected by white nose syndrome. A tiny bit of digging turned up the PGC press release, which pretty much admits to just that:

“Through this process, we heard from various wildlife organizations and representatives from the timber, oil, coal and gas industries, as well as legislators.  At the present time, it is clear that more discussion, research and coordination need to be done on WNS and the other outside factors that are impacting our bat populations, as well as how we can craft solutions that protect bats without threatening the industries that employ thousands of Pennsylvanians.”

Read the PGC press release here.
Read the article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.
Read a press release from the Center for BioDiversity here.

Photo: little brown bat with white nose syndrome, courtesy of Missouri Dept. of Conservation