Publications

Infectious diseases have been implicated as a cause of high rates of adult mortality in southern sea otters. Exposure to environmental contaminants can compromise the immuno-competence of animals, predisposing them to infectious diseases. In addition to organic pollutants, certain trace elements can modulate the immune system in marine mammals. Nevertheless, reports of occurrence of...

Many coral diseases are characterized based on gross descriptions and, given the lack or difficulty of applying existing laboratory tools to understanding causes of coral diseases, most new diseases will continued to be described based on appearance in the field. Unfortunately, many existing descriptions of coral disease are ambiguous or open to subjective interpretation, making...

No abstract available.

Avian cholera is a significant infectious disease affecting waterfowl across North America and occurs worldwide among various avian species. Despite the importance of this disease, little is known about the factors that cause avian cholera outbreaks and what management strategies might be used to reduce disease mortality. Previous studies indicated that wetland water conditions may...

A marked decline in the Picoides borealis (Red-cockaded Woodpecker [RCW]) population at Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, MS, was observed in 2002. Demographic changes - including absence of hatch-year birds, decreases in size of known groups, and loss of known groups-were identified during annual fall surveys and are uncharacteristic of RCW populations. In 2003, a serosurvey of 28 adult...

This study was conducted to further assess the feasibility of vaccinating black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) against plague (caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis). On days 0 and 28, 17 postreproductive ferrets were immunized by subcutaneous injection with a recombinant fusion protein containing F1 and V antigens from Y. pestis. Another 17 animals received a placebo by the same...

If you are interested in lichens and National Parks, now you can query a lichen database that combines these two elements. Using pull-down menus you can: search by park, specifying either species list or the references used for that area; search by species (a report will show the parks in which species are found); and search by reference codes, which are available from the first query...

No abstract available.

No abstract available.

The study of coral disease has suffered from an absence of systematic approaches that are commonly used to determine causes of diseases in animals. There is a critical need to develop a standardized and portable nomenclature for coral lesions in the field and to incorporate more commonly available biomedical tools in coral disease surveys to determine the potential causes of lesions in...

Oriental white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis; OWBVs) died of renal failure when they ingested diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), in tissues of domestic livestock. Acute necrosis of proximal convoluted tubules in these vultures was severe. Glomeruli, distal convoluted tubules, and collecting tubules were relatively spared in the vultures that had early lesions...

A number of factors were identified as causes of mortality in 254 (59%) of 431 sea ducks submitted for necropsy at the USGS-National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, Wisconsin from 1975 until 2003. Bacteria causing large outbreaks of mortality were Pasteurella multocida and Clostridium botulinum Type E. Starvation was responsible for large mortality events as well as sporadic deaths of...