Fish and Wildlife Disease
Fish and Wildlife Disease
Chronic wasting disease and cervid health—2025 highlights
White-Nose Syndrome and Bat Health: 2025 Year in Review
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) Surveillance
Tackling avian influenza with automated detection for an early warning system
Distribution of CWD Expanding
Chronic Wasting Disease continues to spread across North America
Chronic Wasting Disease continues to spread across North America
What is Avian Influenza (AI)?
USGS is the lead Federal agency for free-ranging wildlife disease research and surveillance. Our capabilities enhance the understanding of wildlife disease ecology and epidemiology as well as inform the development of decision-support and control tools. USGS wildlife disease experts provide technical assistance as needed to manage wildlife disease and conduct cause-of-death investigations.
Filter Total Items: 172
Prevalence Rates of Snake Fungal Disease and Its Population-level Impacts in a Snake Assemblage in Southwest Louisiana
WARC researchers used visual encounter surveys to determine prevalence rates of snake fungal disease in south-central Louisiana.
Amphibian Research and Occupancy Modeling in the South-Central Region of the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI)
In response to growing public concerns about this loss of biodiversity, the U.S. Congress funded the Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative (ARMI), a national program coordinated by the U.S. Geological Survey.
A is for Amphibian
On April 26th, 2021, Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland declared May 2 - 8, 2021 as Amphibain Week! This is in In recognition of the vital importance of amphibians (frogs, toads, and salamanders) to the Nation’s public and private lands. Did you know that the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area is the biological research arm of the U.S. Department of the Interior? USGS Ecosystems Mission Area...
Interaction of Environmental Stressors and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) Pathogen Loads on Survival of Green Frogs (Lithobates clamitans)
The U.S. Geological Survey Amphibian Research Monitoring Initiative (ARMI) is using a combination of swabbing, non-lethal tissue sampling, soil and water sampling, and collection of a variety of other environmental variables to determine the relationships between the prevalence and pathogen load of Bd infection and environmental stressors on green treefrog survival.
Assessing Impacts of Emerging and Established Diseases to Aquatic Ecosystems
Native freshwater mussels play a critical role in aquatic environments and are considered “ecosystem engineers” and indicators of water quality by constantly filtering water. Populations of native freshwater mussels have declined in recent years, and this decline has been attributed to factors such as habitat degradation, pollution, and invasive species, among others. The importance of these...
Bat Research
White-nose syndrome (WNS) caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd) has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. As Pd has spread across North America, infection dynamics and mortality from WNS have varied among species and across sites. The mechanisms behind vulnerability of species across the current and expanding...
A continental-scale study of acoustic phenology to improve population monitoring and inform management of hibernating bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Theodore Weller (U.S. Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Craig Willis (University of Winnipeg), and Brian Reichert (FORT) White-nose Syndrome (WNS) has caused severe declines in bat populations over the past 10 years and colony sizes at winter hibernacula have decreased on average by >90% for three...
Integrating colony counts with NABat acoustic data to reveal the true impacts of White-Nose Syndrome on northern long-eared bats
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Tina Cheng (Bat Conservation International) The northern long-eared bat ( Myotis septentrionalis) was listed as Threatened on the Endangered Species Act in 2014 due to rapid declines in numbers of observed hibernating bats at winter roosting sites after the arrival...
Developing online integrated data visualization tools for WNS and NABat
Bat Research Research collaboration: Brian Reichert (FORT), Anne Ballmann (NWHC), Jeremy Coleman (USFWS), Paul Cryan (FORT), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), and Katherine Irvine (NOROCK) White-nose syndrome is caused by the fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), which has decimated hibernating bat populations across North America since it emerged 10 years ago in New York. While diagnostic...
Modeling the response of cave hibernating Myotis species to white-nose syndrome mitigation tactics
Bat Research Research collaboration: Robin Russell (NWHC), Tonie Rocke (NWHC), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC), Evan Grant (EESC) White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease devastating cave-hibernating bat species ( Myotis spp.) in the eastern United States. Several mitigation tactics have been proposed to alleviate the effects of white-nose syndrome on bats including probiotics and vaccination. Questions...
Quantifying vulnerability of bat species to White-nose Syndrome across North America
Bat Research Research collaboration: Winifred Frick (Bat Conservation International), Brian Reichert (FORT), Theodore Weller (US Forest Service), Wayne Thogmartin (UMESC) and the North American Bat Colony Count Consortium We quantify vulnerability of bat species in North America to target and prioritize management actions toward species and habitats that are most at risk from impacts from White...
Algal Toxins and Wildlife Health
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) have the potential to harm fish and wildlife, domestic animals, livestock, and humans through toxin production or ecological disturbances such as oxygen depletion and blockage of sunlight.