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Publications

View citations of publications by National Wildlife Health Center scientists since our founding in 1975.  Access to full-text is provided where possible.

Wildlife Health Bulletins

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Wildlife Health Bulletins are distributed to natural resource/conservation agencies to provide and promote information exchange about significant wildlife health threats.

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Wildlife Disease Case Definitions

Lesser black-backed gull

Case definitions provide a standardized, science-based set of criteria for diagnosing disease and pathogens. This manual provides case definitions for selected diseases of importance to wildlife in Canada and the United States.

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Additional Resources

Filter Total Items: 1633

Leading change with diverse stakeholders

The shift to holistic approaches to managing wildlife health, and the complex landscape of partners and stakeholders, has led to a focus on the development of leadership skills in addition to technical expertise. This chapter introduces key elements and core skills for successful cross-sectoral and transdisciplinary leadership that will help wildlife health practitioners effectively lead...
Authors
Catherine Machalaba, Jonathan M. Sleeman
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Pollution and wildlife health

Pollution is a pervasive and growing threat to wildlife health. This chapter discusses two broad groups of pollution, those whose abatement could have immediate beneficial effects including light, air, and noise pollution, and those that will take relatively longer to address due to their environmental persistence or their continuing discharge. Whilst we are very good at detecting the...
Authors
Thierry M. Work
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Susceptibility of beavers to chronic wasting disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, fatal, neurodegenerative prion disease of cervids. The expanding geographical range and rising prevalence of CWD are increasing the risk of pathogen transfer and spillover of CWD to non-cervid sympatric species. As beavers have close contact with environmental and food sources of CWD infectivity, we hypothesized that they may be susceptible...
Authors
Allen Jeffrey Herbst, Serene Wohlgemuth, Jing-Feng Yang, Andrew Castle, Diana Martinez Moreno, Alicia Otero, Judd M. Aiken, David Westaway, Debbie I. McKenzie
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Biological Threats and Invasive Species Research Program, National Wildlife Health Center

Evaluating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission to bats in the context of wildlife research, rehabilitation, and control

Preventing wildlife disease outbreaks is a priority for natural resource agencies, and management decisions can be urgent, especially in epidemic circumstances. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, wildlife agencies were concerned whether the activities they authorize might increase the risk of viral transmission from humans to North American bats, but had a limited amount of time in which...
Authors
Jonathan D. Cook, Evan H. Campbell Grant, Jeremy T.H. Coleman, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Michael Runge
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Avian-associated Aspergillus fumigatus displays broad phylogenetic distribution, no evidence for host specificity, and multiple genotypes within epizootic events

Birds are highly susceptible to aspergillosis, which can manifest as a primary infection in both domestic and wild birds. Aspergillosis in wild birds causes mortalities ranging in scale from single animals to large-scale epizootic events. However, pathogenicity factors associated with aspergillosis in wild birds have not been examined. Specifically, it is unknown whether wild bird...
Authors
Lotus A. Lofgren, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Robert A. Cramer, David S. Blehert, Brenda M. Berlowski-Zier, Megan Winzeler, Cecilia Gutierrez-Perez, Nicole E. Kordana, Jason E. Stajich
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium from wild birds in the United States represent distinct lineages defined by bird type

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is typically considered a host generalist; however, certain isolates are associated with specific hosts and show genetic features of host adaptation. Here, we sequenced 131 S. Typhimurium isolates from wild birds collected in 30 U.S. states during 1978-2019. We found that isolates from broad taxonomic host groups including passerine birds, water...
Authors
Yezhi Fu, Nkuchia M. M’ikanatha, Jeffrey M. Lorch, David S. Blehert, Brenda M. Berlowski-Zier, Chris A. Whitehouse, Shaoting Li, Xiangyu Deng, Jared David Smith, Nikki W. Shariat, Erin M. Nawrocki, Edward G. Dudley
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Are little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) impacted by dietary exposure to microcystin?

The cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa, can produce the hepatotoxin microcystin. When toxic M. aeruginosa overwinters in the sediments of lakes, it may be ingested by aquatic insects and bioaccumulate in nymphs of Hexagenia mayflies. When volant Hexagenia emerge from lakes to reproduce, they provide an abundant, albeit temporary, food source for many terrestrial organisms including...
Authors
Devon N. Jones, Gregory L. Boyer, Julia S. Lankton, Megan Woller-Skar, Amy M. Russell
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Three decades of stranding data reveal insights into endangered hawksbill sea turtles in Hawai‘i

Hawksbill sea turtles Eretmochelys imbricata inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands are extremely rare and listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. The paucity of data on basic hawksbill ecology continues to hinder effective management of the species. We analyzed stranding data collected between 1984 and 2018 to gain insights into the distribution, demography, and conservation...
Authors
Shandell Brunson, Alexander Gaos, Irene Kinan Kelly, Kyle S. Van Houtan, Yonat Swimmer, Stacy A. Hargrove, George H. Balazs, Thierry M. Work, T. W. Jones
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Demographic implications of lead poisoning for eagles across North America

Lead poisoning occurs worldwide in populations of predatory birds, but exposure rates and population impacts are known only from regional studies. We evaluated the lead exposure of 1210 bald and golden eagles from 38 US states across North America, including 620 live eagles. We detected unexpectedly high frequencies of lead poisoning of eagles, both chronic (46 to 47% of bald and golden...
Authors
Vincent S. Slabe, James Thomas Anderson, Brian A. Millsap, Jeffrey L. Cooper, Alan R. Harmata, Marco Restani, Ross H. Crandall, Barbara Bodenstein, Peter H. Bloom, Travis L. Booms, John Buchweitz, Renee C. E. Culver, Kim Dickerson, Robert Domenech, Ernesto Dominguez-Villegas, Daniel G. Driscoll, Brian Smith, Michael J. Lockhart, David McRuer, Tricia Miller, Patricia Ortiz, Krysta Rogers, Matt S. Schwarz, Natalie J.S. Turley, Brian Woodbridge, Myra E. Finkelstein, Christian A. Triana, Christopher R. DeSorbo, Todd Eli Katzner
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, National Wildlife Health Center

Genetic processes facilitating pathogen emergence

The goal of biosecurity is to minimize the risk of introduction and transmission of infectious diseases to people, animals, and plants. This is achieved by accurately identifying pathogens and instituting appropriate methods to prevent their introduction, reemergence, and/or spread. However, disease is dynamic, and biosecurity needs to continually change to keep pace as pathogens evolve...
Authors
N. J. Grunwald, C. Titus Brown, Hon S. Ip, J. H. Chang
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Experimental inoculation trial to determine the effects of temperature and humidity on White-nose Syndrome in hibernating bats

Disease results from interactions among the host, pathogen, and environment. Inoculation trials can quantify interactions among these players and explain aspects of disease ecology to inform management in variable and dynamic natural environments. White-nose Syndrome, a disease caused by the fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), has caused severe population declines of...
Authors
Winifred F. Frick, Emily Renee Johnson, Tina L. Cheng, Julia S. Lankton, Robin Warne, Jason Dallas, Katy L. Parise, Jeffrey T. Foster, Justin G. Boyles, Liam P. McGuire
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, National Wildlife Health Center

Highly pathogenic avian influenza is an emerging disease threat to wild birds in North America

Prior to the emergence of the A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996 (Gs/GD) H5N1 influenza A virus, the long-held and well-supported paradigm was that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks were restricted to poultry, the result of cross-species transmission of precursor viruses from wild aquatic birds that subsequently gained pathogenicity in domestic birds. Therefore, management...
Authors
Andrew M. Ramey, Nichola J. Hill, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Samantha E.J. Gibbs, M. Camille Hopkins, Andrew S. Lang, Rebecca L. Poulson, Diann Prosser, Jonathan M. Sleeman, David E. Stallknecht, Xiu-Feng Wan
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Alaska Science Center, National Wildlife Health Center, Eastern Ecological Science Center
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