Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Geographic Information Systems Inwildlife Epidemiology: Models Of Chronic Wasting Disease In Colorado Mule Deer, Matthew L. Farnsworth, Jennifer A. Hoeting, N. Thompson Hobbs, Mary M. Conner, Kenneth P. Burnham, Lisa L. Wolfe, Elizabeth S. Williams, David M. Theobald, Michael W. Miller

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The authors present findings from two landscape epidemiology studies of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in northern Colorado mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). First, the effects of human land use on disease prevalence were explored by formulating a set of models estimating CWD prevalence in relation to differences in human land use, sex and geographic location. Prevalence was higher in developed areas and among male deer suggesting that anthropogenic influences (changes in land use), differences in exposure risk between sexes and landscape-scaled heterogeneity are associated with CWD prevalence. The second study focused on identifying scales of mule deer movement and mixing that …

The Introduction And Emergence Of Wildlife Diseases In North America, Robert G. Mclean

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Contents:

Specific Invasive and Emerging Wildlife Diseases: West Nile Virus, Hantavirus, Lyme Disease, Monkeypox, Raccoon Rabies
Foreign Wildlife Diseases That Could Invade the United States: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Rift Valley Fever, Nipah Virus, Japanese Encephalitis
Prevention, Detection, and Control of Invading and Emerging Diseases
References

Coyotes As Sentinels For Monitoring Bovine Tuberculosis Prevalence In White-Tailed Deer, Todd C. Atwood, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Thomas J. Deliberto, Holly J. Smith, Justin S. Stevenson

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), is endemic in free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in 5 counties (Alcona, Alpena, Montmorency, Oscoda, and Presque Isle) in the northeastern Lower Peninsula of Michigan, USA. The presence of a wildlife reservoir of tuberculosis in Michigan and the incidence of bTB in cattle (Bos taurus) resulted in Michigan losing its bTB accredited-free status. Subsequent wildlife surveillance programs identified relatively high disease prevalence in coyotes (Canis latrans), generating interest in their potential to serve as a sentinel species to detect bTB prevalence in white-tailed deer. …

Fence-Line Contact Between Wild And Farmed Cervids In Colorado: Potential For Disease Transmission, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Michael J. Lavelle, Nathan W. Seward, Justin W. Fischer, Gregory E. Phillips

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Direct and indirect contact between wild and farmed cervids along perimeter fences may play a role in transmission of diseases like chronic wasting disease (CWD), but no studies have quantified such interactions. At 9 high-fenced commercial elk (Cervus elaphus) farms in Colorado, USA, during October 2003 to January 2005, we used animal-activated video to estimate rates of fence-line use by wild cervids, rates of direct contact between farmed and wild cervids, and probability of direct contact when wild cervids were present. We recorded 8-foldmore wild elk per unit time than mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) at fence …

Fence-Line Contact Between Wild And Farmed White-Tailed Deer In Michigan: Potential For Disease Transmission, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Michael J. Lavelle, Nathan W. Seward, Justin W. Fischer, Gregory E. Phillips

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Interactions between wild and farmed white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) along perimeter fences may play a role in the transmission of diseases like bovine tuberculosis and chronic wasting disease. However, no study has evaluated direct contact between wild and farmed deer through fences. We used animal-activated cameras to estimate rates of interaction between wild and farmed deer at 6 high-fenced commercial white-tailed deer farms in Michigan, USA, during October 2003 to January 2005. We recorded only 2 direct, naso-oral contacts between wild and farmed deer during >77,000 hours of camera monitoring. We documented little direct contact between wild and …

Scwds Briefs: Volume 22, Number 4 (January 2007), Gary L. Doster , Editor, Scwds Briefs, Michael J. Yabsley

Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study: Publications

Table of Contents:

SCWDS Celebrates 50 Years

More Bovine TB in Minnesota

Developments in CWD Surveillance and Research

Federal CWD Rule Update

Tularemia in Backyard Wildlife

Osteochondromas in Two Deer

Invasive Exotic Animals in the Southeast

New Field Manual Sales

Skin Lesions On Blue Whales Off Southern Chile: Possible Conservation Implications?, Robert L. Brownell Jr., Carole A. Carlson, Barbara Galletti Vernazzani, Elsa Cabrera

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

We report on three types of skin lesions in a population of blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, off the northwestern coast of Isla Grande de Chiloe, Chile. These lesions were: (1) cookie-cutter shark, Isistius brasilensis, bites, (2) vesicular or blister lesions, and (3) a tattoo-like skin disease. The presence of these lesions was determined by the examining photos collected in 2006 and 2007 for a blue whale photo-identification project. We examined 289 photographs of 68 individuals for lesions. The cookie-cutter shark lesions are common on these blue whales and similar to those reported from other species of cetaceans. Skin …

Global Stability Results Of An Sis Age-Structured Epidemic Model With Vertical Transmission, M. El-Doma

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

An SIS age-structured epidemic model for a vertically as well as horizontally transmitted disease is investigated when the fertility, mortality and cure rates depend on age and the force of infection of proportionate mixing assumption type. We determine the steady states and prove the global stability for the endemic equilibriums.

Multinomial Logistic Regression Model For The Inferential Risk Age Groups For Infection Caused By Vibrio Cholerae In Kolkata, India, Krishnan Rajendran, Thandavarayan Ramamurthy, Dipika Sur

Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods

Multinomial Logistic Regression (MLR) modeling is an effective approach for categorical outcomes, as compared with discriminant function analysis and log-linear models for profiling individual category of dependent variable. To explore the yearly change of inferential age groups of acute diarrhoeal patients infected with Vibrio cholerae during 1996-2000 by MLR, systematic sampling data were generated from an active surveillance study. Among 1330 V.cholerae infected cases, the predominant age category was up to 5 years accounting for 478 (30.5%) cases. The independent variables V.cholerae O1 (p<0.001) and non-O1 and non-O139 (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with children under 5 years age group. V.cholerae O139 inferential age group was > 40 years. The infection mediated by V.cholerae O1 had significantly decreasing trend Exp(B) year wise from …

Extraction Method Development And In Vivo And In Vitro Toxicity Studies Of The Etiologic Agent Of Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy, Faith Wiley

All Dissertations

Avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM) is a neurological disease affecting birds in the southeastern United States. The cause of the disease has not yet been determined but is believed to be a naturally produced toxin and is associated with aquatic vegetation. Current research on AVM is limited to in vivo studies utilizing whole tissue or vegetative samples. The objectives of this research were to develop extraction methods for isolating the putative AVM toxin from vegetative samples and to develop an in vitro bioassay for detection and study of the toxin. Samples of vegetation were collected from reservoirs known to be affected …

Direct And Indirect Costs Of Rabies Exposure: A Retrospective Study In Southern California (1998–2002), Stephanie A. Shwiff, Ray T. Sterner, Michele T. Jay, Shefali Parikh, Amy Bellomy, Martin I. Meltzer, Charles E. Rupprecht, Dennis Slate

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The direct and indirect costs of suspected human rabies exposure were estimated for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, California, USA. Clinic, hospital, and county public health records (1998–2002) were examined to determine direct costs for postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), and 55 (41%) former patients were contacted to voluntarily provide estimates of their indirect costs associated with receiving PEP. Additional costs due to public health and animal control personnel responses to rabid animals were collected, including diagnostic testing and wages. The mean total cost of a suspected human rabies exposure was $3,688, the direct costs per case were $2,564, and …

The Successful Eradication Of Introduced Roof Rats (Rattus Rattus) From Buck Island Using Diphacinone, Followed By An Irruption Of House Mice (Mus Musculus), Gary W. Witmer, Frank Boyd, Zandy Hillis-Starr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The United States National Park Service and the United States Wildlife Services made a planned and sustained effort to eradicate the introduced roof rats (Rattus rattus) from Buck Island Reef National Monument in the Caribbean Sea during 1998–2000. The rats were causing substantial damage to a variety of the 80-ha island’s floral and faunal resources. An island-wide grid of elevated bait stations containing anticoagulant (0.005% diphacinone; 50 ppm) rodenticide bait blocks were used to eradicate the rats. The bait stations were modified several times to assure ready access by rats while minimizing access by non-target animals, especially crabs …

Covariate Adjustment In Randomized Trials With Binary Outcomes: Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation, Kelly L. Moore, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Covariate adjustment using linear models for continuous outcomes in randomized trials has been shown to increase efficiency and power over the unadjusted method in estimating the marginal effect of treatment. However, for binary outcomes, investigators generally rely on the unadjusted estimate as the literature indicates that covariate-adjusted estimates based on logistic regression models are less efficient. The crucial step that has been missing when adjusting for covariates is that one must integrate/average the adjusted estimate over those covariates in order to obtain the marginal effect. We apply the method of targeted maximum likelihood estimation (MLE), as presented in van der …

The Successful Eradication Of Introduced Roof Rats (Rattus Rattus) From Buck Island Using Diphacinone, Followed By An Irruption Of House Mice (Mus Musculus), Gary W. Witmer, Frank Boyd, Zandy Hillis-Starr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The United States National Park Service and the United States Wildlife Services made a planned and sustained effort to eradicate the introduced roof rats (Rattus rattus) from Buck Island Reef National Monument in the Caribbean Sea during 1998–2000. The rats were causing substantial damage to a variety of the 80-ha island’s floral and faunal resources. An island-wide grid of elevated bait stations containing anticoagulant (0.005% diphacinone; 50 ppm) rodenticide bait blocks were used to eradicate the rats. The bait stations were modified several times to assure ready access by rats while minimizing access by non-target animals, especially crabs …

Short Report: Fox Squirrel (Sciurus Niger) Associations With West Nile Virus, J. Jeffrey Root, Paul T. Oesterle, Heather J. Sullivan, Jeffrey S. Hall, Nicole L. Marlenee, Robert G. Mclean, John A. Montenieri, Larry Clark

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Tree squirrels (Sciurus spp.) have been recently shown to be commonly exposed to West Nile virus (WNV). Many characteristics of WNV infections in tree squirrels are unknown. To better understand WNV associations in fox squirrels (S. niger), we conducted mark-recapture sampling (N=72) and radio telemetry to study the longitudinal seroprevalence, seroconversions, and ectoparasites of these animals during 2005–2006 in northern Colorado. Five seroconversions were documented during this study. The majority of seroconversions occurred during the late summer/ fall months. However, one seroconversion was documented over the time period of February to late March 2005. Fleas …

Scwds Briefs: Volume 23, Number 1 (April 2007), Gary L. Doster , Editor, Scwds Briefs, Michael J. Yabsley

Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study: Publications

Table of Contents:

SCWDS History Continued: The Domestic Animal Connection

WNV Still With Us: Other Arboviruses May Follow

Avian Influenza Update – Spring 2007

Scholarship in Memory of Ed Couvillion

Chronic Lead Poisoning in Raptors

Unusual Deer Tumor

Kevin Keel Receives Award

New Edition of Wild Bird Diseases Book

Downstream Pathway Activation In Cultured Hepatocytes Following Treatment With Francisella Tularensis, Nicole Wakefield

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Francisella tularensis, the intracellular pathogen that causes tularemia, was investigated to determine how it infects and replicates within mammalian hepatocytes. To date, it has been shown that hepatocytes can be infected by F. tularensis and that this causes considerable change in the protein phosphorylation state of several vital signaling molecules within the host cell. Protein kinase pathways can be mapped as signatures of infection. Hepatocytes tend to be susceptible to infection by F. tularensis, thus stimulating internal signaling. The Francisella strains used were selected with the goal of producing a model that can be used to elucidate the cell signaling …

Climate Justice: The Next Movement [Outline], Richard J. Lazarus

The Climate of Environmental Justice: Taking Stock (March 16-17)

Presenter: Richard J. Lazarus, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

2 pages.

An Artificial Immune System-Inspired Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithm With Application To The Detection Of Distributed Computer Network Intrusions, Charles R. Haag

Theses and Dissertations

Today's predominantly-employed signature-based intrusion detection systems are reactive in nature and storage-limited. Their operation depends upon catching an instance of an intrusion or virus after a potentially successful attack, performing post-mortem analysis on that instance and encoding it into a signature that is stored in its anomaly database. The time required to perform these tasks provides a window of vulnerability to DoD computer systems. Further, because of the current maximum size of an Internet Protocol-based message, the database would have to be able to maintain 256⁶⁵⁵³⁵ possible signature combinations. In order to tighten this response cycle within storage constraints, …

Adapting The Phylogenetic Program Fitch For Distributed Processing, Robert A. Dubin

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The ability to reconstruct optimal phylogenies (evolutionary trees) based on objective criteria impacts directly on our understanding the relationships among organisms, including human evolution, as well as the spread of infectious disease. Numerous tree construction methods have been implemented for execution on single processors, however inferring large phylogenies using computationally intense algorithms can be beyond the practical capacity of a single processor. Distributed and parallel processing provides a means for overcoming this hurdle. FITCH is a freely available, single-processor implementation of a distance-based, tree-building algorithm commonly used by the biological community. Through an alternating least squares approach to branch length …

Invasive Predators: A Synthesis Of The Past, Present, And Future, William C. Pitt, Gary W. Witmer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive predators have had devastating effects on species around the world and their effects are increasing. Successful invasive predators typically have a high reproductive rate, short generation times, a generalized diet, and are small or secretive. However, the probability of a successful invasion is also dependent on the qualities of the ecosystem invaded. Ecosystems with a limited assemblage of native species are the most susceptible to invasion provided that habitat and climate are favorable. In addition, the number of invasion opportunities for a species increases the likelihood that the species will successfully establish. The list of routes of entry or …

Oral Rabies Vaccine (Orv) Bait Uptake By Captive Striped Skunks, Susan M. Jojola, Stacie J. Robinson, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Aerial delivery of oral rabies vaccine (ORV) baits has proven effective in large-scale efforts to immunize wildlife against rabies, and in North America this strategy currently is being used to immunize foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus and Vulpes vulpes), raccoons (Procyon lotor), and coyotes (Canis latrans). Skunks are also a major reservoir and vector of rabies, but at present oral vaccines for use in skunks are not licensed. Furthermore, given differences in morphology (smaller jaws) and behavior (food handling and consumption), it is unknown if baits currently used in ORV campaigns would be effective for skunks. …

Near Real-Time Extract, Transform And Load, Wei-Chwen Soon Wilson

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The integrated Public Health Information System (iPHIS) system requires a maximum one hour data latency for reporting and analysis. The existing system uses trigger-based replication technology to replicate data from the source database to the reporting database. The data is transformed into materialized views in an hourly full refresh for reporting. This solution is Central Processing Unit (CPU) intensive and is not scaleable. This paper presents the results of a pilot project which demonstrated that near real-time Extract, Transform and Load (ETL), using conventional ETL process with Change Data Capture (CDC), can replace this existing process to improve performance and …

Wmi Outdoor News Bulletin * February 2007, Volume 61, No. 2

Wildlife Management Institute Outdoor News Bulletin

Contents:

• Secretary Kempthorne and Richard Louv to keynote North American Conference

• Elk book again available and at huge discount

• Predator/prey workshop at North American set agenda

• Jaywalking wildlife in Arizona may catch a break

• Proposed plowing of the Farm Bill

• Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit partners advocate rejecting budget request

• Worth reading:

Backcountry Bear Basics

Scout: The Christmas Dog

A Hunter’s Book of Days

Serologic Evidence Of West Nile Virus Exposure In North American Mesopredators, Kevin T. Bentler, Jeffrey S. Hall, J. Jeffrey Root, Kaci Klenk, Brandon S. Schmit, Bradley F. Blackwell, Paul C. Ramey, Larry Clark

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Sera from 936 mammalian mesopredators (Virginia opossums, gray foxes, striped skunks, hooded skunks, raccoons, a bobcat, and a red fox) were collected during 2003 and 2004 in California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio, and Wyoming and screened for flavivirus-specific antibodies by an epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosobent assay (blocking ELISA). Serum samples positive for antibodies against flaviviruses were screened for West Nile virus (WNV)– specific antibodies by blocking ELISA and selectively confirmed with plaque-reduction neutralization tests. High prevalence rates were observed in raccoons (45.6%) and striped skunks (62.9%). The high WNV antibody prevalence noted in mesopredators, their peridomestic tendencies, and their overall pervasiveness …

Bird Movement Predicts Buggy Creek Virus Infection In Insect Vectors, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown, Amy T. Moore, Nicholas Komar

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Predicting the spatial foci of zoonotic diseases is a major challenge for epidemiologists and disease ecologists. Migratory birds are often thought to be responsible for introducing some aviozoonotic pathogens such as West Nile and avian influenza viruses to a local area, but most information on how bird movement correlates with virus prevalence is anecdotal or indirect. We report that the prevalence of Buggy Creek virus (BCRV) infection in cimicid swallow bugs (Oeciacus vicarius), the principal invertebrate vector for this virus, was directly associated with the likelihood of movement by cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), an amplifying host …

Ecological Correlates Of Buggy Creek Virus Infection In Oeciacus Vicarius, Southwestern Nebraska, 2004, Amy T. Moore, Eric A. Edwards, Mary Bomberger Brown, Nicholas Komar, Charles R. Brown

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Buggy Creek virus (family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus, BCRV) is an alphavirus within the western equine encephalitis virus complex whose primary vector is the swallow bug, Oeciacus vicarius Horvath (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), an ectoparasite of the colonially nesting cliff swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, that is also a frequent host for the virus.We investigated ecological correlates of BCRV infection in 100-bug pools at 14 different swallow colony sites in southwestern Nebraska from summer 2004, by using plaque assay on Vero cells to identify cytopathic virus and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to identify noncytopathic viral RNA. We found 26.7% of swallow bug pools …

Arsenic Toxicity In Plhc-1 Cell Line And The Distribution Of Arsenic In Central Appalachia, Yeong Nam Jeong

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Our ecosystem has geobiophysical relationships. Environmental pollution can lead to immediate consequences like organism death or lack of reproduction. It can also lead to long-range consequences through mutations and DNA damage. Fish can be affected very directly by environmental contamination in water but the study of fish is not performed well. We are developing a quantitative assay to assess DNA damage in vitro due to heavy metal contamination using a tissue culture line of Poeciliopsis lucida, the desert pupfish, which is used for other toxicology assays. To detect DNA damage, Single Cell Gel Electrophoresis (Comet Assay) is very useful. …

Native Communities And Climate Change: Protecting Tribal Resources As Part Of National Climate Policy: Report, Jonathan M. Hanna, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center, Western Water Assessment (Program)

Books, Reports, and Studies

67 p.

The Poor Contribution Of Chimpanzee Experiments To Biomedical Progress, Andrew Knight

Experimentation Collection

Biomedical research on captive chimpanzees incurs substantial nonhuman animal welfare, ethical, and financial costs that advocates claim result in substantial advancements in biomedical knowledge. However, demonstrating minimal contribution toward the advancement of biomedical knowledge generally, subsequent papers did not cite 49.5% (47/95), of 95 experiments randomly selected from a population of 749 published worldwide between 1995 and 2004. Only 14.7% (14/95) were cited by 27 papers that abstracts indicated described well-developed methods for combating human diseases. However, detailed examination of these medical papers revealed that in vitro studies, human clinical and epidemiological studies, molecular assays and methods, and genomic studies …