Mission Statement: This initiative seeks to promote interdisciplinary science, education and outreach that increase the health and production of captive cervids in a sustainable manner and promotes the health of native wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live.

Who we are:

Director • Samantha Wisely, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

CHeRI Affiliate Scientists • Jason Blackburn, Geography • Nathan Burkett-Cadena, Florida Medical Entomology Lab

• John Lednicky, Environmental and Global Health

• Katherine Sayler, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

• Tom Waltzek, Pathobiology

• Jim Wellehan, Zoo Medicine Program

Current Projects:

• Best Management Practices to Curb Hemorrhagic Disease

• Pathogens and parasites shared by livestock and cervids

• Risk assessment and disease prevention for Parelaphostrongylus spp. infection

Hemorrhagic Disease Objectives:

Decrease morbidity and mortality via:

• Integrated pest management

• Diagnostics

• Best farm management practices

Study Area

Integrated pest management:

Current research objectives

• Identify competent vectors of HD in Florida

• Identify larval habitats of Culicoides

• Work with pesticide companies on targeted delivery systems

• Map distribution of Culicoides spp. and create predictive map of emergence based on climate variables

Culicoides Community Ecology

• LED light traps in a random stratified design

• Larval substrate collection

• Aspirate feeding Culicoides off tame deer

• Molecular-based bloodmeal analysis

• In which habitats are different Culicoides spp. found?

• In what habitats do different Culicoides spp. develop?

• Which species feed on white-tailed deer?

• Which vertebrate species are hosts to Culicoides?

Site 1: At edge of improved pasture, formerly sand pit

Site 16: Deep in forest canopy of oak hammock

Bloodmeal analysis results

Diagnostics:

Current research objectives:

• Correlate morbidity and mortality of deer with serotype and genotype of viruses

• Establish library of isolates from Florida

• Understand viral mechanisms underlying virulence and pathogenicity

– Quasispecies, Genotype, Recombination

• Role of co-infection

• Waltzek/Wellehan Conventional Diagnostic Methods (2000 – 2010)

– 35 herpesviruses

– 15 adenoviruses

– 7 papillomaviruses

– 5 poxviruses

– 6 iridoviruses

– 6 reoviruses

– 6 astroviruses

– 1 coronavirus

• Waltzek/Wellehan NGS (2011 – 2015)

– > 100 novel pathogens (viruses, bacteria, etc.)

– Highlights include: Novel Picornaviruses, Bunyaviruses,

Hepeviruses, Papillomaviruses Mimiviruses, Poxviruses…

– Diagnostics for OIE reportable pathogens (KHV, RSIV, Ranavirus)

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Wildlife & Aquatic Veterinary Disease Laboratory Diagnostics & Pathogen Discovery

Necropsy performed on 21 animals in 2015: 1 with clinical signs and gross pathology consistent with HD

• Arcanobacterium pyogenes

• Pseudomonas sp.

• E. coli isolated from kidneys

• Enterobacter cloacae

-17 of 21 animals were fawns -NONE of the fawns had signs consistent with EHD/BTV - One of 21 animals had confirmed HD (adult white-tailed deer buck) -Other causes of mortality included primary bacterial pneumonia, septicemia, caused by infection w/:

Serology: BTV cELISA and EHD VNT

N=81 captive cervids April- October, 2015

• 6 species were sampled: North American elk, fallow deer, black buck, Pere David’s deer, axis deer, white-tailed deer

• 44% of exotics were seropositive for EHD, 33% for BTV

• 77.8% of captive white-tails were seropositive for EHD, 34.2% for BTV

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Collaborations? Please contact Dr. Samantha Wisely, wisely@ufl.edu http://www.wec.ufl.edu/cheri/