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Find out more about Biological Threat and Invasive Species Research through our publications.

Filter Total Items: 305

Host susceptibility to snake fungal disease is highly dispersed across phylogenetic and functional trait space

Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) reduce host population sizes, cause extinction, disassemble communities, and have indirect negative effects on human well-being. Fungal EIDs have reduced population abundances in amphibians and bats across many species over large areas. The recent emergence of snake fungal disease (SFD) may have caused declines in some snake populations in the Eastern United Sta
Authors
Frank T. Burbrink, Jeffrey M. Lorch, Karen R. Lips

Snake fungal disease: An emerging threat to wild snakes

Since 2006, there has been a marked increase in the number of reports of severe and often fatal fungal skin infections in wild snakes in the eastern USA. The emerging condition, referred to as snake fungal disease (SFD), was initially documented in rattlesnakes, where the infections were believed to pose a risk to the viability of affected populations. The disease is caused byOphidiomyces ophiodii
Authors
Jeffrey M. Lorch, Susan Knowles, Julia S. Lankton, Kathy Michell, Jaime L. Edwards, Joshua M. Kapfer, Richard A. Staffen, Erik R. Wild, Katie Z. Schmidt, Anne Ballmann, Doug Blodgett, Terence M. Farrell, Brad M. Glorioso, Lisa A. Last, Steven J. Price, Krysten L. Schuler, Christopher Smith, James F. X. Wellehan, David S. Blehert

Retrospective analysis of the epidemiologic literature, 1990–2015, on wildlife-associated diseases from the Republic of Korea

To assess the status of research on wildlife diseases in the Republic of Korea (ROK) and to identify trends, knowledge gaps, and directions for future research, we reviewed epidemiologic publications on wildlife-associated diseases in the ROK. We identified a relatively small but rapidly increasing body of literature. The majority of publications were focused on public or livestock health and rela
Authors
Jusun Hwang, Kyunglee Lee, Young-Jun Kim, Jonathan M. Sleeman, Hang Lee

Detecting the movement and spawning activity of bigheaded carps with environmental DNA

Bigheaded carps are invasive fishes threatening to invade the Great Lakes basin and establish spawning populations, and have been monitored using environmental DNA (eDNA). Not only does eDNA hold potential for detecting the presence of species, but may also allow for quantitative comparisons like relative abundance of species across time or space. We examined the relationships among bigheaded carp
Authors
Richard A. Erickson, Christopher B. Rees, Alison A. Coulter, Christopher M. Merkes, S. Grace McCalla, Katherine F Touzinsky, Liza R. Walleser, Reuben R. Goforth, Jon Amberg

Genetic analysis shows that morphology alone cannot distinguish asian carp eggs from those of other cyprinid species

Fish eggs and embryos (hereafter collectively referred to as “eggs”) were collected in the upper Mississippi River main stem (~300 km upstream of previously reported spawning by invasive Asian carp) during summer 2013. Based on previously published morphological characteristics, the eggs were identified as belonging to Asian carp. A subsample of the eggs was subsequently analyzed by using molecular
Authors
James H. Larson, S. Grace McCalla, Duane Chapman, Christopher B. Rees, Brent C. Knights, Jonathan M. Vallazza, Amy E. George, William B. Richardson, Jon Amberg

Detection of spring viraemia of carp virus in imported amphibians reveals an unanticipated foreign animal disease threat

Global translocation of plants and animals is a well-recognized mechanism for introduction of pathogens into new regions. To mitigate this risk, various tools such as preshipment health certificates, quarantines, screening for specific disease agents and outright bans have been implemented. However, such measures only target known infectious agents and their hosts and may fail to prevent transloca
Authors
Hon S. Ip, Jeffrey M. Lorch, David S. Blehert

Hepeviruses of fish

Originally reported from California, the cutthroat trout virus (CTV) has now been isolated from eight species of salmonids in North America. Early work focused on the replication and physical characteristics of the small, round virus, but not until 20 years later was it determined to be most closely related to viruses causing hepatitis E in humans or infecting avian and mammalian hosts. The genome
Authors
William N. Batts

Paramyxoviruses of fish

The first fish paramyxovirus was isolated from normal adult Chinook salmon returning to a coastal hatchery in Oregon in the fall of 1982. Subsequently, the virus was isolated from other stocks of adult Chinook salmon and one stock of adult coho salmon in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, leading to its designation as the Pacific salmon paramyxovirus (PSPV). The slow-growing virus can be i
Authors
Theodore R. Meyers, William N. Batts

Bigheaded carps of the Yangtze and Mississippi Rivers: Biology, status, and management

No abstract available.
Authors
Duane Chapman, Daqing Chen, Jan J. Hoover, Hao Du, Quinton E. Phelps, Li Shen, Chenyou Wang, Qiwei Wei, Hui Zhang

Identification of the major capsid protein of erythrocytic necrosis virus (ENV) and development of quantitative real-time PCR assays for quantification of ENV DNA

Viral erythrocytic necrosis (VEN) is a disease of marine and anadromous fish that is caused by the erythrocytic necrosis virus (ENV), which was recently identified as a novel member of family Iridoviridae by next-generation sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis of the ENV DNA polymerase grouped ENV with other erythrocytic iridoviruses from snakes and lizards. In the present study, we identified the ge
Authors
Maureen K. Purcell, Schuyler Pearman-Gillman, Rachel L. Thompson, Jacob L. Gregg, Lucas M. Hart, James R. Winton, Eveline J. Emmenegger, Paul K. Hershberger

First direct confirmation of grass carp spawning in a Great Lakes tributary

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella), an invasive species of Asian carp, has been stocked for many decades in the United States for vegetation control. Adult individuals have been found in all of the Great Lakes except Lake Superior, but no self-sustaining populations have yet been identified in Great Lakes tributaries. In 2012, a commercial fisherman caught four juvenile diploid grass carp in the
Authors
Holly S. Embke, Patrick M. Kocovsky, Catherine A. Richter, Jeremy J. Pritt, Christine M. Mayer, Song Qian

Disease surveillance of Atlantic herring: molecular characterization of hepatic coccidiosis and a morphological report of a novel intestinal coccidian

Surveillance for pathogens of Atlantic herring, including viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV),Ichthyophonus hoferi, and hepatic and intestinal coccidians, was conducted from 2012 to 2016 in the NW Atlantic Ocean, New Jersey, USA. Neither VHSV nor I. hoferi was detected in any sample. Goussia clupearum was found in the livers of 40 to 78% of adult herring in varying parasite loads; however, a
Authors
Sarah E Friend, J Lovey, Paul Hershberger