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

Andy Radomski, Ph.D.

University of Minnesota-Crookston

Natural Resources - Wildlife

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

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 TEXASBOBWHITES: ARE THEY TO

BLAME FOR THEIR DECLINE?

Rio Grande PlainsTPWD Quail Survey

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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:

• 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 GIARDIASIS

PLAQUE RMSP

LYME DISEASE TULAREMIA

HISTOPLASMOSISHANTAVIRUSRACCOON RNDWORM SARCOCYSTIC

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

• 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• “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

• 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

Focal necrosis in liver

Abscessed mesentericlymph node

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

• 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)