Constance Roderick (Former Employee)

In the fall of 2021, California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported larval and adult California giant salamanders (Dicamptodon ensatus Eschscholtz, 1833) with skin lesions at multiple creeks in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties, California, USA. Field signs in both stages included rough, lumpy textured skin, and larvae with tails that were disproportionately long, flat, wavy, and...

A disadvantage of colorimetric detection in nucleic acid amplification assays is the possibility that a colorblind individual may interpret colors differently than observers with full-color vision. Using an isothermal amplification assay, the ability of colorblind individuals to distinguish between positive and negative results for four dyes was tested. Five individuals with self...

The Asian fish tapeworm (Schyzocotyle acheilognathi syn. Bothriocephalus acheilognathi) (AFT) is an invasive parasite that can infect many species of fish, although most hosts are primarily members of Cyprinidae. Pathogenicity has most often been reported in aquaculture settings in fry and fingerling stages of carp (Cyprinus spp.). More recently, it has been shown to cause growth...

In early September 2019, a morbidity and mortality event affecting California tiger salamanders (Ambystoma californiense) and Santa Cruz long-toed salamanders (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum) in late stages of metamorphosis was reported at a National Wildlife Refuge in Santa Cruz County, California, U.S.A. During the postmortem disease investigation, severe integumentary metacercarial...

Under Wisconsin state law, the greater prairie chicken (GRPC; Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) has been listed as a threatened species since 1976. In 2014–15, we conducted a pilot study to determine the prevalence and intensity of gapeworms (Syngamus spp.) in female Wisconsin GRPCs collected from 2 monitored populations. We captured 62 female GRPCs using walk-in-style traps for females and...

Several mortality events involving barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) were reported in the Upper Midwestern states in 2017 and 2018. Barn swallow mortality followed unseasonal cold snaps, with the primary cause of death being emaciation with concurrent air sac nematodiasis. Lesions in cliff swallows were consistent with blunt force trauma from...

No abstract available.

Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from brain or heart tissue from 15 southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) in cell cultures. These strains were used to infect mice that developed antibodies to T. gondii as detected in the modified direct agglutination test and had T. gondii tissue cysts in their brains at necropsy. Mouse brains containing tissue cysts from 4 of the strains were fed to...

A total of 28 species of helminths (17 trematodes, 3 cestodes, 7 nematodes, and 1 acanthocephalan) was recovered from 17 ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) from the United States. Intensities of infection were low and no lesions were attributed to the parasites. Seven species appear to be specialists in ospreys, 2 species generalists in raptors, and the remainder generalists in other orders of...

Two Florida snail kites (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus, Say) collected in August and December 1993 from Osceola County (28°15′N, 81°17′W) and Glades County (26°45′N, 81°10′W), Florida (USA), respectively, were infected with Bothrigaster variolaris (Trematoda: Cyclocoelidae); this parasite has not been reported previously from birds in the United States. One bird, a fledgling female...

No abstract available.