Robert Rameyer
Biography
Bob Rameyer has a BS degree in biology from Iowa State University. He worked as a technician for the US Department of Agriculture in Iowa and the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin before coming to Hawaii in 1994. Bob heads up day to day operations of the Honolulu Field Station (HFS) and in general keeps the wheels on the cart.
Science and Products
A novel host-adapted strain of Salmonella Typhimurium causes disease in olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the Pacific.
Salmonella spp. are frequently shed by wildlife including turtles, but S. enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium or lesions associated with Salmonella are rare in turtles. Between 1996 and 2016, we necropsied 127 apparently healthy pelagic olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) that died from drowning bycatch in fisheries and 44 live...
Work, Thierry M.; Dagenais, Julie; Stacy, Brian A.; Ladner, Jason T.; Lorch, Jeffrey M.; Balazs, George H.; Barquero-Calvo, Elias; Berlowski-Zier, Brenda M.; Breeden, Renee; Corrales-Gómez, Natalia; Gonzalez-Barrientos, Rocio; Harris, Heather; Hernández-Mora, Gabriela; Herrera-Ulloa, Angel; Hesami, Shoreh; Jones, T. Todd; Morales, Juan Alberto; Norton, Terry M.; Rameyer, Robert; Taylor, Daniel; Waltzek, Thomas B. Pufferfish mortality associated with novel polar marine toxins in Hawaii
Fish die-offs are important signals in tropical marine ecosystems. In 2010, a mass mortality of pufferfish in Hawaii (USA) was dominated by Arothron hispidus showing aberrant neurological behaviors. Using pathology, toxinology, and field surveys, we implicated a series of novel, polar, marine toxins as a likely cause of this mass mortality. Our...
Work, Thierry M.; Moeller, Perer D. R.; Beauchesne, Kevin R.; Dagenais, Julie; Breeden, Renee; Rameyer, Robert; Walsh, Willliam A.; Abecassis, Melanie; Kobayashi, Donald R.; Conway, Carla M.; Winton, James Puffer mortality data
In 2010, a mass mortality of pufferfish in Hawaii was dominated by Arothron hispidus showing aberrant neurological behaviors. Using pathology, toxinology, and field surveys, we implicated a series of novel, polar, marine toxins as a likely cause of this mass mortality. Our findings are striking in that 1) a marine toxin was associated with a kill...
Work, Thierry M.; Moeller, Perer D. R.; Beauchesne, Kevin R.; Dagenais, Julie; Breeden, Renee; Rameyer, Robert; Walsh, William J.; Abecassis, Melanie; Kobayashi, Donald R.; Conway, Carla M.; Winton, James R. Mortality patterns in endangered Hawaiian geese (Nene; Branta sandvicensis)
Understanding causes of death can aid management and recovery of endangered bird populations. Toward those ends, we systematically examined 300 carcasses of endangered Hawaiian Geese (Nene; Branta sandvicensis) from Hawaii, Maui, Molokai, and Kauai between 1992 and 2013. The most common cause of death was emaciation, followed by trauma (...
Work, Thierry M.; Dagenais, Julie; Rameyer, Robert; Breeden, Renee Molecular phylogeny of Babesia poelea from brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) from Johnston Atoll, Central Pacific
The phylogenetic relationship of avian Babesia with other piroplasms remains unclear, mainly because of a lack of objective criteria such as molecular phylogenetics. In this study, our objective was to sequence the entire 18S, ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 regions of the rRNA gene and partial ß-tubulin gene of B. poelea, first described from brown...
Yabsley, Michael J.; Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert A. Characterizing lesions in corals from American Samoa
The study of coral disease has suffered from an absence of systematic approaches that are commonly used to determine causes of diseases in animals. There is a critical need to develop a standardized and portable nomenclature for coral lesions in the field and to incorporate more commonly available biomedical tools in coral disease surveys to...
Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert A. Evaluating coral reef health in American Samoa
The study of coral disease has suffered from an absence of systematic approaches that are commonly used to determine causes of diseases in animals. There is a critical need to develop a standardized and portable nomenclature for coral lesions in the field and to incorporate more commonly available biomedical tools in coral disease surveys to...
Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert A. Retrospective pathology survey of green turtles Chelonia mydas with fibropapillomatosis in the Hawaiian Islands, 1993-2003
We necropsied 255 stranded green turtles Chelonia mydas with fibropapillomatosis (FP) from the Hawaiian Islands, North Pacific, from August 1993 through May 2003. Of these, 214 (84%) were euthanized due to advanced FP and the remainder were found dead in fresh condition. Turtles were assigned a standardized tumor severity score ranging from 1 (...
Work, Thierry M.; Balazs, George H.; Rameyer, Robert; Morris, R.A. Protozoal and epitheliocystis-like infections in the introduced bluestripe snapper (Lutjanus kasmira) in Hawaii
The bluestripe snapper, or taape, was introduced into Hawaii in the 1950s and has since become very abundant throughout the archipelago. As part of a health survey of reef fish in Hawaii, we necropsied 120 taape collected from various coastal areas south of Oahu and examined fish histology for extraintestinal organisms. Forty-seven percent of...
Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert; Takata, Geraldine; Kent, Michael L. French Frigate Shoals reef health survey
French Frigate Shoals (FFS) is one of the refugia comprising the Northwest Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge (NWHINWR). French Frigate Shoals was discovered by La Perouse in the late 18th century; however, the atoll was most notable as a naval air station during World War II when the US Navy dredged Tern Island into an airstrip, and the US...
Work, Thierry M.; Coles, Steve L.; Rameyer, Robert Immune status of free-ranging green turtles with fibropapillomatosis from Hawaii
Cell-mediated and humoral immune status of free-ranging green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Hawaii (USA) with and without fibropapillornatosis (FP) were assessed. Tumored and non-tumored turtles from Kaneohe Bay (KB) on the island of Oahu and from FP-free areas on the west (Kona/Kohala) coast of the island of Hawaii were sampled from April 1998...
Work, Thierry M.; Rameyer, Robert; Balazs, George H.; Cray, Carolyn; Chang, Sandra P. Assessing humoral and cell-mediated immune response in Hawaiian green turtles, Chelonia mydas
Seven immature green turtles, Chelonia mydas, captured from Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu were used to evaluate methods for assessing their immune response. Two turtles each were immunized intramuscularly with egg white lysozyme (EWL) in Freund’s complete adjuvant, Gerbu, or ISA-70; a seventh turtle was immunized with saline only and...
Work, Thierry M.; Balazs, George H.; Rameyer, Robert; Chang, S.P.; Berestecky, J.