Transcript WILDLIFE DISEASES: What you don’t know COULD kill you!

WILDLIFE DISEASES:
What you don’t know COULD kill you!
Andy Radomski, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota-Crookston
Natural Resources - Wildlife
My Neat Experiences:
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Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
My Neat Experiences:
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
My Neat Experiences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
My Neat Experiences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
My Neat Experiences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
My Neat Experiences:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Undergraduate
Graduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
STRESSORS OF TEXAS
BOBWHITES: ARE THEY TO
BLAME FOR THEIR DECLINE?
Rio Grande Plains
r=-0.142
P=0.561
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Bobwhite
Scaled
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Mean Number Per Route
TPWD Quail Survey
Year
BOOM-BUST HYPOTHESES
El Nino / Habitat Degradation
Parasitic Infection / R.E.V.
Fire Ants
Nutritional Deficiencies
Endocrine Disruptors
Corticosterone
Radio-Immuno Assay (RIA)
My Neat Experiences:
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Undergraduate
Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan
Lyme Disease
USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab
Graduate
Postdoctorate
Environment
Human
Disease
ZOONOTIC DISEASES:
• Wildlife diseases transmissible to humans:
RABIES
PLAQUE
LYME DISEASE
HISTOPLASMOSIS
GIARDIASIS
RMSP
TULAREMIA
HANTAVIRUS
RACCOON RNDWORM SARCOCYSTIC
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RABIES
“Hydrophobia” or “Rage”
Virus (F. Rhabdoviridae)
Only warm-blooded animals
Symptoms in 10 days to several months
Normally from bite or saliva
Can be aerosal - bat caves in TX
May be abnormal in appearance or behavior
Prophylaxis (pre-exposure vaccines
and Control (killed vaccines)
GIARDIASIS
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Giardiasis, “Beaver Fever”
Protozoan (Giardia lamblia)
Intestinal disorder
Ingest cyst in water, feces or contact with
an infected animal (beaver and muskrat)
• Chronic diarrhea, weight loss and malaise
• Effective medications; preventative – avoid
drinking untreated water
PLAGUE
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“Black Death”, “Pest”
Bacterium (Yersinia pestis); Fleas transmit
Isolated cases in West and Texas
Wild rodent, rabbits, carnivores
Fever, swollen lymph nodes, progressing to
high fever, confusion and fatique
• Untreated – high fatality rate
• Treatment – tetracycline or other drugs
•Loss 1/3 world population (1800s)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
SPOTTED FEVER
• Bacterium (Rickettsia rickettsii)
• Ticks transmit (several spp.)
Bite or crushed ticks or tick feces
• Flu-like symptoms; fever, chills, aches
• Rubber gloves, wash hands, remove ticks
• Usually 4 hours for tick transmittal
LYME DISEASE
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Bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi)
Ticks and fleas
Old Lyme, Connecticut
3 stages: (1) Flu-like, (2) Small red lesion
around bite, (3) Recurrent arthritis
• Treatment: Antibiotics
TULAREMIA
• “Rabbit fever or disease”, “Francis’ disease”
• Bacterium (Francisella tularensis)
• Many hosts; humans usually infected by
rabbits during skinning process, ingestion, or
from tick/flea/deerfly bites
• Symptoms: fever, infected sores, “flu-like”
• Rabbits with white spots on liver/spleen
• Rarely fatal; treatable
HISTOPLASMOSIS
• Fungus (Histoplasma capsulatum)
• Respiratory ailment – inhale spores
• Blackbird and pigeon roosts, bat caves,
and chicken houses
• Symptoms highly variable; severe cases
resemble tuberculosis
Abscessed mesenteric
lymph node
Focal necrosis in liver
HANTAVIRUS
• Group of viruses
• Infected rodents; urine, feces, and/or
saliva – aerosal and direct
• Kidney, blood, respiratory ailments
• Can be fatal
RACCOON ROUNDWORM:
• Intestinal roundworm, Baylisascaris procyonis
• Infectious: cottontail rabbits, mammals, birds
• Signs: neurological disease; circling, abnormal
posture, blindness
• Lesions: CNS, larvae as white nodules in
abdominal or thoracic viscera
SARCOCYSTOSIS
• “Rice breast”, “Long grain rice disease”
• Protozoan (Sarcocystis spp.)
• Most vertebrates; intermediate host
CUTANEOUS WARBLES
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Larval flies (Cuterebra spp.)
Signs: increased scratching/grooming
Lesions: localized swellings (0.5-1”)
Squirrels and rodents; common in SE
Occasionally debilitating
Restricted to skin
DISEASE DIAGNOSIS
• Hunters typically report abnormalities
• Some gross lesions are specific and
indicative of a specific disease
• USFWS Wildlife Health Lab
• State Agency
• University – Medical, Veterinary
Avian Pox
2 Good Field Books
• Field Guide to Wildlife Diseases, General
Field Procedures and Diseases of
Migratory Birds (USDI – Madison, WI)
• Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases in the
Southeastern United States (Davidson,
W.R. and V.F. Nettles – SCWDS)