Journal of Wildlife Diseases最新文献

{"title":"Wildlife Rabies Virus Dynamics in Alabama, USA, 2020-25.","authors":"Charles E Rupprecht, Mark Ellis, Dee W Jones, Ivan V Kuzmin","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-26-00027","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-26-00027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Wildlife rabies is enzootic in the USA apart from Hawaii. This viral zoonosis perpetuates using mammalian reservoirs within the Chiroptera and Carnivora. In the southeastern USA, the predominant rabies virus variants are associated with raccoons (Procyon lotor) and bats. Besides being enzootic for bat rabies, Alabama is the westernmost USA state for raccoon rabies perpetuation. To assess the recent viral dynamics of wildlife rabies in Alabama, 65 samples of rabid animals were acquired from public health submissions during 2020-25. Rabies virus nucleoprotein gene sequences were generated for phylogenetic analysis. Two major viral lineages were identified: one lineage was aligned with raccoons and the other with bats. Host spillover infections of raccoon rabies virus were detected in domestic animals and other mesocarnivores. No bat rabies viruses were found in non-bat hosts, but several examples of interspecific transmission among bats were apparent. Such data are useful for tracking epidemiologic trends locally, to determine suspected host shifts, and for regional introspection related to management and potential translocation events.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"592-603"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147930869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparison of Detection Rates of Toxoplasma gondii among Five Host Tissues and Two Primer Sets in Three Bird Species.","authors":"Katherine E Buschang, Clément Lagrue, Robert Poulin, Jerusha Bennett","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00189","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00189","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Toxoplasma gondii is a globally distributed parasite that infects a wide range of warm-blooded animals and requires felids as definitive hosts. Although birds are recognized carriers of T. gondii, in New Zealand species morbidity and mortality events have been sporadically reported, and systematic data are lacking. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and tissue distribution of T. gondii in three common aquatic birds in New Zealand: the native Red-billed Gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus) and Black-backed Gull (Larus dominicanus), and the introduced Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos). Birds were collected between September 2022 and April 2025 and screened using nested PCR with two commonly used primer sets (B1, targeting the B1 gene, and FOOD, targeting the pppk-dhps region). Five organs (liver, lung, heart, brain, and spleen) were tested to compare detection rates across tissues. Overall, prevalence was low but consistent across primers and tissues in all three species. Black-backed Gulls and Mallards showed higher prevalence than Red-billed Gulls, probably reflecting differences in diet, habitat, and behavior. Brain and heart tissues yielded the highest detection rates, and the FOOD primers were approximately twice as sensitive as the B1 set. These findings provide practical guidance for primer and tissue selection in avian T. gondii studies and represent the first assessment of infection in these three bird species in New Zealand. They also highlight potential ecologic differences among species that may influence exposure to T. gondii.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"633-643"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147987995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Profiling of the Guadalupe Fur Seal (Arctocephalus philippii townsendii) Fecal Bacteriome in Relation to Alopecic Syndrome.","authors":"Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, Carlos A Domínguez-Sánchez, D Paulina Nieves-Martínez","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00154","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00154","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Alopecic syndrome in Guadalupe fur seals, Arctocephalus philippii townsendii (GFSs), was first observed a decade ago, coinciding with an anomalous warm sea surface temperature event and shifts in foraging behaviors of otariid pinnipeds from Mexican North Pacific colonies. With no evidence of dermatophytes or ectoparasites commonly associated with alopecia, it has been proposed that nutritional or metabolic changes, secondary to altered foraging, may increase the risk of alopecia. We employed 16S rRNA gene deep sequencing to investigate changes in the fecal bacteriome of GFS with and without alopecia. We found no significant differences in species richness nor Simpson's diversity index, and alopecia accounted for less than 6% of the variation in bacteriome structure. However, five bacterial phyla (Bacteroidota, Firmicutes, Fusobacteriota, Proteobacteria, and Spirochaetota) were overrepresented, and two (Actinobacteriota and Campylobacterota) were underrepresented, in GFSs with alopecia. At the genus level, animals with alopecia had a higher abundance of various bacteria, including Parabacteroides, Bacteroides, Lachnospiraceae, Roseburia, and genera within Erysipelotrichaceae, which have been linked to alopecia in humans. The GFS fecal bacteriome revealed 322 distinct bacterial functional pathways, of which 163 varied significantly between cases and controls. The most prominent differences found in GFSs with alopecia were overrepresentation of critical precursors for bacterial cell wall components, aromatic amino acid biosynthesis and pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, and underrepresentation of glucosyltransferases and bacterial surface antigens, nitrogen and sulfur metabolism, and bacterial secretion systems. Our study provides preliminary evidence that changes in enteric microbiota may contribute to the pathogenesis of alopecia in GFSs via three main mechanisms: dysregulation of immune modulation and sustained inflammation, altered metabolism, and reduced redox balance and detoxification in the gut. While future studies need to explore these possibilities, our findings offer insight into the role of the microbiome in emerging pathologies of wildlife.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"535-546"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148042948","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ketamine-Butorphanol-Azaperone-Medetomidine for Helicopter Capture of Free-Ranging Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in Alaska, USA.","authors":"Annette Roug, Aidan Hunter, Marie Jamison, Gerrit van Diest, Torsten Bentzen","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00174","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00174","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are frequently captured for research and management, often using drug combinations that include potent opioids. We evaluated an alternative combination of butorphanol-azaperone-medetomidine (BAM) plus ketamine (KBAM) for helicopter-based captures of free-ranging caribou. The study included 61 animals from four herds captured between October 2024 and April 2025: 30 female calves and 31 adult cows. Initially, 11 calves were immobilized with 1 mL BAM and 50 mg ketamine; subsequently, the ketamine dose was reduced to 30 mg for the remaining calves. Adult cows received 1.75-2.25 mL BAM with 50 mg ketamine. Overall, 22/30 calves were weighed, and doses (mean ±SD [range]) were 0.51±0.04 (0.43-0.60) mg/kg for butorphanol, 0.17±0.01 (0.14-0.20) mg/kg for azaperone, and 0.21±0.01 (0.17-0.24) mg/kg for medetomidine. Mean ketamine doses were 0.96±0.08 (0.85-1.10) mg/kg for calves receiving 50 mg and 0.55±0.04 (0.48-0.63) mg/kg for calves receiving 30 mg. Mean time from darting to recumbency was 4.1 min (range 2-8 min) for calves and 6.3 min (range 3-16 min) for adults, and mean time from intramuscular reversal with atipamezole and naltrexone to standing was 5.4 min (range 1-12 min) for calves and 6.0 min (range 1-38 min) for cows. No capture-related mortalities were observed within 1 mo post-release. All animals experienced hypoxemia, which improved with intranasal oxygen administration. These results suggest that KBAM is an effective alternative to potent opioids for helicopter-based capture of caribou, providing reasonably rapid induction and recovery while minimizing mortality risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"604-610"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147530318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Baylisascaris sp. (Nematoda: Ascaridae) in a Free-living Procyon cancrivorus in Paraguay.","authors":"J Richard Vetter, José G Petters","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00184","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00184","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>A South American raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), native to Paraguay, was found to host eggs suggestive of Baylisascaris procyonis, a zoonotic nematode that can cause severe human disease. This first report from Paraguay highlights the parasite's public health relevance and underscores the need for enhanced wildlife surveillance within a One Health framework.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"735-737"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mucormycosis in a Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) on the Australian Mainland.","authors":"Daniel McGilp, Rosemary Booth, Rachael Clark, Joanne Connolly, Sarah E Kidd","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00145","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00145","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mucormycosis is a well-recognized fungal disease affecting Tasmanian platypuses (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). The causative agent, Mucor amphibiorum, has been found to infect both native and introduced amphibians of the Australian mainland; however, there are no previous reports of this infection in platypuses of the Australian mainland.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":"62 3","pages":"731-734"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148368759","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review.","authors":"Jerry Haigh","doi":"10.7589/JWD_62-3_BookReview","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7589/JWD_62-3_BookReview","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Book reviews express the opinions of the individual authors regarding the value of the book's content for Journal of Wildlife Diseases readers. The reviews are subjective assessments and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, nor do they establish any official policy of the Wildlife Disease Association.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147856398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimating Survival of Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) with Mycoplasmopsis sp., Adenovirus, and Herpesvirus Detection in Illinois, USA.","authors":"Maris J Daleo, Kirk W Stodola, Thomas J Benson, Laura A Adamovicz, Christopher A Phillips, Matthew C Allender","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00122","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00122","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The impact of health and disease on wildlife population dynamics and individual survival is complex and poorly understood, especially in cryptic species such as chelonians. Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) are declining due to anthropogenic and natural factors, including disease, though the relative importance of these factors for individual survival is unknown. Determining survival rates in free-ranging chelonians is challenging because individuals are difficult to locate and recapture, deceased turtles can be quickly scavenged, and turtles can die underground during a brumation period. The purpose of this study was to estimate the apparent survival rate for wild eastern box turtles detected with common box turtle pathogens, including Terrapene herpesvirus 1, Terrapene adenovirus, and box turtle Mycoplasmopsis sp., using Cormack-Jolly-Seber models. We used mark-recapture data from 778 individuals from five box turtle populations collected over 7 yr (2016-22), paired with concurrently collected demographic and quantitative PCR pathogen detection data. Apparent survival estimates were different among the five sites, ranging from 71% to 88%, but similar between sexes. We found that pathogens modeled as a function of survival had a positive effect; turtles detected with a pathogen were two to six times more likely to survive than those without detected pathogens. However, this may be an artifact of high, unbiased pathogen prevalence paired with a relatively low probability of pathogen detection via intermittent testing. This analysis provides important estimates of apparent survival for the declining eastern box turtle and valuable information on the interaction between pathogen detection and estimates of individual survival, which can be used to better understand the drivers of population persistence in this species.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"339-348"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147317062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Surveillance of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Wild Birds in France, 2016-22: What Did We Learn from Mortality Data?","authors":"Louison Blin, Clément Calenge, Anouk Decors, Nicolas Toulet, Emma Meloni, Anne Van De Wiele, Eva Faure, Thomas Rambaud, Eric Niqueux, Claire Guinat, Guillaume Le Loc'h, Loïc Palumbo","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00056","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00056","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) poses major conservation issues worldwide. In France, recurrent outbreaks of HPAI (H5) in wild birds have occurred since 2020, yet our understanding of the disease's dynamics have remained limited. By leveraging data from the national wildlife health surveillance network (SAGIR), we conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of the HPAI outbreaks in wild birds. Between 2016 and 2022, two different spatiotemporal patterns of the disease were observed in France: sporadic episodes of the virus in four episodes, forming either isolated cases or self-limited clusters at the maximum and epizootic circulation in 2022. During sporadic circulation episodes, observations were concentrated in well-defined spatiotemporal clusters with low prevalence. Those self-limited clusters, places where the density of positive events was substantially larger than in the rest of France, reflected three epidemiologic patterns: 1) recurrent clusters linked to migration and waterfowl habitats; 2) clusters involving synanthropic species in diverse areas and related to outbreaks in poultry farms; and 3) outbreaks in colonial bird species, observed once in 2020 and once in 2022, involving Red Knots (Calidris canutus) and Eurasian Griffon Vultures (Gyps fulvus), respectively. Beginning in summer 2022, the epizootic episode, characterized by a high prevalence along the northern French coasts, involved Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus) and Laridae. During this epizootic, cluster boundaries were far less well-defined. The ecology of the affected bird species and the characteristics of the circulating viral strains (often adapted to these species) may explain this new spatiotemporal dynamic compared with previously observed sporadic circulation, driven mainly through migration. Our study provides a better understanding of the dynamics of HPAI outbreaks in wild birds; nevertheless, knowledge gaps remain, and improved surveillance of HPAI in wild birds is still needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"295-310"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147317073","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Detection and Characterization of a Novel Porcine Teschovirus in Wild Boars (Sus scrofa) in France.","authors":"Julien Hirschinger, Guillaume Le Loc'h, Cécile Caubet, Maxime Fusade-Boyer, Eva Faure, Malory Randon, Damien Dubosc, Freddy Talarico, Christine Saint-Andrieux, Mouna Abed-Zahar, Ariane Payne, Anouk Decors","doi":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00110","DOIUrl":"10.7589/JWD-D-25-00110","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Porcine teschoviruses (PTV) are enteric pathogens affecting suids. Although ubiquitous in healthy domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) populations, some virulent strains can cause severe neurological disorders known as Teschen-Talfan disease. Wild boars (Sus scrofa) can host PTV, but little is known about their epidemiological role in the dynamic of the pathogens. Until recently, PTV had not been reported in wild boars in France. However, in 2019 and 2020, serological evidence of PTV infection was detected in hunted wild boars from Drôme and Marne, some of which exhibited neurological and reproductive disorders. As a result, a combined serological, virological, and phylogenic screening was implemented. Results revealed high seroprevalence rates, up to 38%, suggesting endemic circulation of PTV in these populations. Genetic sequencing of PCR-positive samples suggests the presence of a novel PTV genotype. These findings raise questions about the pathogenicity of this new PTV strain as well as of the potential role of wild boars in the epidemiology of PTV in France, and highlight the need for further investigation into the interactions between domestic pigs and wild boar and the dynamics of the spread of PTV between them.</p>","PeriodicalId":17602,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Wildlife Diseases","volume":" ","pages":"431-438"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3,"publicationDate":"2026-04-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146180758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}