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

1. WILDLIFE DISEASES:What you don’t know COULD kill you! Andy Radomski, Ph.D. University of Minnesota-Crookston Natural Resources - Wildlife

2. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

3. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

4. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

5. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

6. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

7. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Graduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

8. STRESSORS OF TEXAS BOBWHITES: ARE THEY TO BLAME FOR THEIR DECLINE?

9. Rio Grande Plains r=-0.142 P=0.561

10. BOOM-BUST HYPOTHESES • El Nino / Habitat Degradation • Parasitic Infection / R.E.V. • Fire Ants • Nutritional Deficiencies • Endocrine Disruptors Corticosterone

11. Radio-Immuno Assay (RIA)

12. My Neat Experiences: • Undergraduate • Wisconsin DNR – Lake Michigan • Lyme Disease • USFWS National Wildlife Health Lab • Graduate • Postdoctorate

13. Human Environment Disease

16. ZOONOTIC DISEASES: • Wildlife diseases transmissible to humans: RABIES GIARDIASIS PLAQUE RMSP LYME DISEASE TULAREMIA HISTOPLASMOSIS HANTAVIRUS RACCOON RNDWORM SARCOCYSTIC

17. 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)

19. GIARDIASIS • 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

21. PLAGUE • “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

22. Loss 1/3 world population (1800s)

23. 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

25. LYME DISEASE • 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

27. 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

28. HISTOPLASMOSIS • Fungus (Histoplasma capsulatum) • Respiratory ailment – inhale spores • Blackbird and pigeon roosts, bat caves, and chicken houses • Symptoms highly variable; severe cases resemble tuberculosis

29. Abscessed mesenteric lymph node Focal necrosis in liver

30. HANTAVIRUS • Group of viruses • Infected rodents; urine, feces, and/or saliva – aerosal and direct • Kidney, blood, respiratory ailments • Can be fatal

31. 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

33. SARCOCYSTOSIS • “Rice breast”, “Long grain rice disease” • Protozoan (Sarcocystis spp.) • Most vertebrates; intermediate host

36. CUTANEOUS WARBLES • 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

38. 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

39. Avian Pox

42. 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)