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.
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Index of Wildlife Disease Information Resources
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) provides the following index of wildlife disease information resources as a starting point to learn about selected wildlife diseases.
Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Species Studied - Chinook Salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Effects of population density on prevalence of chronic wasting disease, physical condition, and vital rates of elk at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota
CWD is a degenerative neurological disease caused by infectious proteins called prions. Although documented cases are invariably fatal, infected elk commonly survive for several months or longer, passing prions directly to other individuals and into the environment, where they bind to surfaces or soils and can persist for years. CWD reached Wind Cave National Park about 1997 and rapidly became the...
Immune components in eggs of New World blackbirds
Interest in the immune systems of wild birds has increased as public health authorities have recognized that many emerging infectious diseases of wildlife can be transmitted to humans (i.e., zoonoses). Eco-immunology is an emerging field that characterizes how immune adaptations of wild species vary as a result of evolution in different habitats and niches. Present understanding of the influence...
Avian Botulism
Botulism is a natural toxin produced by a bacterium ( Clostridium botulinum ) commonly found in the soil. There are several types of botulism toxin some of which can affect humans who eat improperly canned foods. Birds get their own kind of botulism (Type C in Hawaii) that does not affect humans. Botulism type C is concentrated in aquatic invertebrates that filter feed sediments or water. When...
Toxoplasmosis
Toxoplasmosis is caused by a microscopic parasites called a protozoan. The specific name of the protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis is Toxoplasma gondii. T. gondii reproduces in the gut of cats (all members of the Felidae are susceptible). Cats shed the parasite in their feces, and the parasite is ingested by other animals (intermediate hosts) causing disease. Cats can acquire the parasite from...
Disease Ecology and Modeling
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) provides quantitative support and technical assistance to state and federal wildlife managers and partners to better understand or predict the impact of disease on wildlife populations.
Vaccines
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) works on developing various disease management tools, including the development of vaccines. Our current work focuses on vaccines for sylvatic plague, white-nose syndrome, and rabies as disease control strategies.
Technology Development and Innovation
To provide the next generation of wildlife disease tools, that can move past detection and documentation and towards solutions for wildlife disease problems, the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is developing a suite of new or adapted technology. Primarily, these technologies focus on three areas of improvement in the realm of wildlife disease: prediction and prevention, surveillance for...
Diagnostic Services
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) conducts laboratory investigations to determine the causes of wildlife mortality events, especially large-scale die-offs or those that are otherwise unusual.
White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) assists State, Federal, and Tribal wildlife agencies nationwide with early detection of Pseudogymnoascus destructans ( Pd), and addresses specific research priorities identified by partners in conjunction with the White-Nose Syndrome National Plan.
Vector-borne Disease Research
Lyme disease is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in North America, with about 300,000 cases per year in the U.S. We are studying transmission of the spirochete that causes this disease among wild animals and the blacklegged tick vectors, to determine why Lyme disease is common in the northeast and northern Midwest but rare in the south, even though blacklegged ticks are present in all of...