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
International Reporting of Wildlife Diseases of Interest
Reporting of wildlife diseases is important to build situational awareness regarding wildlife health, build national and global knowledge capacity, increase coordination among agencies, and integrate wildlife health data into other surveillance frameworks .
Disease
Disease is a major threat facing amphibian and reptile populations around the world. Our research addresses interactions between pathogens, the environment, and hosts to better understand ways to prevent the spread of disease.
Chronic Wasting Disease
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae, the deer family. CWD is one member of a family of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and is thought to be caused by prions. CWD is the only TSE known to affect free-ranging wildlife.
Health Effects and Behavioral Response of Florida Manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris) to Persistent Algal Bloom and Associated Loss of Seagrass Resources in Brevard County, Florida
USGS researchers are working with partners to assess the health and foraging behavior of Florida manatees in the northern Indian River Lagoon and Banana River, areas that have experienced declining seagrasses due to an extended phytoplankton bloom.
Assessment of the immune status of wild and laboratory-maintained smallmouth bass
Deaths of young-of-year smallmouth bass in the Chesapeake Bay drainage has been noted since 2005. Studies of affected fish have found bacterial, viral and parasitic infections. Mixed infections suggest these fish are immunosuppressed. Understanding the role of specific pathogens and environmental factors that contribute to their presence is important but equally important is the understanding of...
New Technologies and Groundwork for Mosquito Control in the Alaka'i Plateau
Introduced mosquito-borne avian diseases, avian pox and avian malaria, are key limiting factors for endemic Hawaiian forest birds and are, in part, likely responsible for past extinctions and the continued decline of extant species populations. In the last 40 years on the island of Kaua‘i a number of species have become increasingly rare and several are now presumed extinct. Coinciding with these...
Avian Influenza
Avian influenza is a viral disease caused by various strains of avian influenza viruses that can be classified as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) or highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). It remains a global disease with potential high consequence with the potential to threaten wildlife, agriculture, and human health.
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...