Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
Date of this Version
January 2001
Abstract
• Avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM) was confirmed in eight bald eagles and is suspected in another six eagles that died from mid-November 2000 through late January 2001 at Clarks Hill Lake in eastern Georgia.
• Bovine tuberculosis TB in Manitoba Elk
• CWD in a Nebraska Deer: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids has been found for the first time in a free-ranging cervid outside Colorado and Wyoming.
• Tropical Bont Tick on St. Croix: The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced that the tropical bont tick (Amblyomma variegatum) had been found on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands after several specimens were collected from a stray bull during August 2000. Acute bovine dermatophilosis is caused by the bacterium Dermatophilus congolensis.
• Aussie Rabbits Protected from Calicivirus: In March 1995, researchers released Rabbit Calicivirus Disease (RCD) into a fenced quarantined area on Wardang Island, which is 2.5 miles from the Australian mainland. The virus soon escaped from Wardang Island and reached the mainland where it rapidly spread throughout the country. Now, evidence of a so-called “mild cousin” to the deadly RCD has been detected. It is possible that this similar, non-pathogenic virus may be responsible for the variable effectiveness of RCD in population control of the wild European rabbit in Australia. Also known as viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits, RCD affects only the European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, the species to which all pet and commercial rabbits in the United States belong. Wild rabbits of North America are not susceptible to RCD.
• Secondary Poisoning from Euthanasia Drug sodium pentobarbital
• SCWDS researchers recently were awarded a USDA-funded grant to investigate the role of black flies in the transmission of the New Jersey serotype of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV-NJ) during epizootics. This virus is one of the causative agents of vesicular stomatitis (VS), an arthropodborne disease which primarily affects cattle, swine, and horses.
• SCWDS E-mail Addresses