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Intranasal Inoculation Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) With Lyophilized Chronic Wasting Disease Prion Particulate Complexed To Montmorillonite Clay, Tracy A. Nichols, Terry R. Spraker, Tara D. Rigg, Crystal Meyerett-Reid, Clare Hoover, Brady Michel, Jifeng Bian, Edward Hoover, Thomas Gidlewski, Aru Balachandran, Katherine O'Rourke, Glenn C. Telling, Richard Bowen, Mark D. Zabel, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), the only known prion disease endemic in wildlife, is a persistent problem in both wild and captive North American cervid populations. This disease continues to spread and cases are found in new areas each year. Indirect transmission can occur via the environment and is thought to occur by the oral and/or intranasal route. Oral transmission has been experimentally demonstrated and although intranasal transmission has been postulated, it has not been tested in a natural host until recently. Prions have been shown to adsorb strongly to clay particles and upon oral inoculation the prion/clay combination exhibits increased …

Is Propagule Size The Critical Factor In Predicting Introduction Outcomes In Passeriform Birds?, Michael P. Moulton, Wendell P. Cropper Jr., Michael L. Avery

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Influential analyses of the propagule pressure hypothesis have been based on multiple bird species introduced to one region (e.g. New Zealand). These analyses implicitly assume that species-level and site-level characteristics are less important than the number of individuals released. In this study we compared records of passerine introductions with propagule size information across multiple regions (New Zealand, Australia, and North America). We excluded species introduced to just one of the three regions or with significant uncertainty in the historical record, as well as species that succeeded or failed in all regions. Because it is often impossible to attribute success to …

Assignment Of Measurable Costs And Benefits To Wildlife Conservation Projects, S. A. Shwiff, A. M. Anderson, R. Cullen, P. C. L. White, S. S. Shwiff

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Success of wildlife conservation projects is determined by a suite of biological and economic factors. Donor and public understanding of the economic factors is becoming increasingly central to the longevity of funding for conservation efforts. Unlike typical economic evaluation, many costs and benefits related to conservation efforts are realised in nonmonetary terms. We identify the types of benefits and costs that arise from conservation projects and examine several well developed techniques that economists use to convert benefits and costs into monetary values so they may be compared in a common metric. Costs are typically more readily identifiable than benefits, with …

Response Of Palila And Other Subalpine Hawaiian Forest Bird Species To Prolonged Drought And Habitat Degradation By Feral Ungulates, Paul C. Banko, Richard J. Camp, Chris Farmer, Kevin W. Brinck, David L. Leonard, Robert M. Stephens

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Extinction has claimed half of all historically-known Hawaiian passerines, and today many extant species are increasingly threatened due to the combined effects of invasive species and climate change. Habitat disturbance has affected populations of feeding specialists most profoundly, and our results indicate that specialists continue to be most vulnerable, although even some abundant, introduced, generalist species also may be affected. Surveys of passerines during 1998–2011 in subalpine woodland habitat on Mauna Kea Volcano, Island of Hawai'i, revealed that the abundance of the critically endangered palila (Loxioides bailleui), a seed specialist, declined by 79% after 2003. The 'akiapōlā'au ( …

Isolation Of Mycobacteria From Clinical Samples Collected In The United States From 2004 To 2011, T. C. Thacker, Suelee Robbe-Austerman, Beth Harris, Mitchell Van Palmer, Wade Ray Waters

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Background: Mycobacteria other than M. bovis may interfere with current bovine tuberculosis diagnostic tests resulting in false positive test results. As the prevalence of M. bovis decreases in the United States, interference from other mycobacteria play an increasingly important role in preventing the eradication of M. bovis. To identify mycobacteria other than M. bovis that may be interfering with current diagnostic tests, a retrospective study was performed to identify mycobacteria isolated from clinical tissues at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories between 1 January 2004 and 9 October 2011.

Results: During the study period, 2,366 mycobacteria other than …

Dietary Niche Differentiation Among Three Species Of Invasive Rodents (Rattus Rattus, R. Exulans, Mus Musculus), Aaron B. Shiels, Caitlin A. Flores, Arthur Khamsing, Paul D. Krushelnycky, Stephen M. Mosher, Donald R. Drake

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The diets of sympatric rodents partially define their realized niches. Identifying items in stomachs of introduced rodents helps determine rodents’ trophic positions and species most at risk of consumption. In the Hawaiian Islands, which lacked rodents prior to human arrival, three rodents (Rattus rattus or black rat, R. exulans or Pacific rat, Mus musculus or house mouse) commonly coexist in native habitats where they consume a wide range of plants and animals. These three rodent species were trapped in montane forest for 2.5 years; their stomach contents were analyzed to determine short-term diets (n = 12–95 indiv. per species), …

The Effects Of Vitamin K1-Rich Plant Foods On The Efficacy Of The Anticoagulant Rodenticides Chlorophacinone And Diphacinone, Used Against Montane Voles (Microtus Montanus), Gary W. Witmer, Nathan P. Snow, Rachael S. Moulton

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Voles can cause significant losses to agriculture and wood fibre production. California growers typically rely on baits containing chlorophacinone and diphacinone to reduce vole population densities, but the efficacy of those rodenticides has been decreasing. One hypothesis suggests that voles are consuming high levels of an antidote (vitamin K1) to the anticoagulants, contained within green leafy plants. We tested that hypothesis by first feeding Montane Voles (Microtus montanus) diets that were high in vitamin K1, and then providing the animals with either: (1) chlorophacinone-containing bait, (2) diphacinone-containing bait, or (3) a control diet. We found that the chlorophacinone-containing …

Managing Turfgrass To Reduce Wildlife Hazards At Airports, Brian E. Washburn, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Multiple factors-including safety regul at ions, economic considerations, location, and attrae· tiveness to wildlife recognized as hazardous to avia· tion-influence the choice of land cover at airports. The principal land cover at airports within North America has historically been turfgrass. usually cool· season perennial grass species native to Europe. However, recent research has determined that, from a wildlife perspective, not all turfgrasses are alike. Some grasses are more palatable to herbivorous hazardous wildlife (e.g., Canada geese [Branta canadensis]) than others, and thus are more likely to increase the potential for wildlife-aircraft collisions when planted near critical airport operating …

Foraging Ecology Of Four Gull Species At A Coastal–Urban Interface, Brian E. Washburn, Glen E. Bernhardt, Lisa Kutschbach-Brohl, Richard B. Chipman, Laura C. Francoeur

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Coastal urban environments provide a potentially diverse source of food for gulls, including items of marine, terrestrial, and anthropogenic origin. Our objective was to examine variation in the diet and use of feeding habitat of four species of gulls, the Laughing (Leucophaeus atricilla), Herring (Larus argentatus), Great Blackbacked (L. marinus), and Ring-billed (L. delawarensis), at a coastal–urban interface. We necropsied, identified the sex and age class, and quantified the stomach contents of 1053 Laughing, 249 Herring, 67 Great Black-backed, and 31 Ring-billed Gulls collected near the New York City metropolitan area in …

Detection Of African Swine Fever Virus-Like Sequences In Ponds In The Mississippi Delta Through Metagenomic Sequencing, Xiu-Feng Wan, J. Lamar Barnett, Fred Cunningham, Si Chen, Guohua Yang, Shannon Nash, Li-Pong Long, Lorelei Ford, Sherry Blackmon, Yan Zhang, Larry Hanson, Qiang He

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Metagenomic characterization of water virome was performed in four Mississippi catfish ponds. Although differing considerably from African swine fever virus (ASFV), 48 of 446,100 sequences from 12 samples were similar enough to indicate that they represent new members in the family Asfarviridae. At present, ASFV is the only member of Asfarviridae, and this study presents the first indication of a similar virus in North America. At this point, there is no indication that the identified virus(es) pose a threat to human or animal health, and further study is needed to characterize their potential risks to both public health and agricultural …

Excluding Mammals From Airports, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Michael J. Lavelle, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

To ensure aircraft safety, it is critical to exclude large mammal species such as deer (Odocoileus spp.), feral swine (Sus scrofa), and coyotes (Canis latrans) from airport environments, as well as to consider thoroughly and carefully all available management methods. Airports are often located on or adjacent to undeveloped land that provides habitat for various species large enough to pose a direct hazard to aircraft. Unoccupied expanses of forage near runways provide deer with sufficient incentive to leave cover and occupy airport lands. Associated risk and tragic collisions have ranked deer as the most hazardous wildlife group …

Pseudorabies (Aujeszky’S Disease), Kerri Pedersen, Yvonne Nadler

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Demonstration Of Avian Control® Bird Repellent (A.I., Methyl Anthranilate) For Managing Blackbird Damage To Ripening Sunflower., George M. Linz, H. Jeffrey Homan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

After the reproductive period, blackbirds in the northern Great Plains aggregate in large flocks that feed on ripening crops, especially sunflower. At today’s prices, blackbirds eat about $8–12 million of sunflower annually in northern Great Plains, with most of this damage occurring in North Dakota and South Dakota (Peer et al. 2003). Additional expenditures are incurred by producers trying to protect their crop, including the costs in time, travel, and materials for hazing blackbirds. A chemical feeding repellent would be ideal for protecting sunflower from blackbirds because it would not only cut the amount of losses from foraging but also …

Index From Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Glossary From Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Chapter 7 Large Scales And Future Directions For Landslide Ecology From Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Landslide ecology is an emerging discipline that provides insights into both scientific and management issues. Scientifically, it explores nutrient cycling and soil development, plant physiological adaptations, dispersal and colonization dynamics, novel mixes of native and nonnative species, and successional trajectories in an often inhospitable environment. Landslide ecology also integrates biological aspects of landslides into efforts to manage slope hydrology, soil erosion, and the stabilization of slopes.

2. Human-landslide interactions are becoming more common as human populations expand into mountainous terrain and climate change increases landslide frequency.

3. A landscape-level approach to landslide rehabilitation integrates topography, broad-scale climatic conditions, landslide …

Chapter 5 Biotic Interactions And Temporal Patterns Forlandslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Landslide succession is the sequential replacement of plant communities following landslide creation. It is affected by biotic interactions and abiotic conditions and occurs in the intervals between recurrent erosion events.

2. Plant species can facilitate or inhibit landslide succession by direct species interactions or indirectly by the alteration of resources including light levels, soil stability, soil moisture, or soil nutrients. Species replacements may also occur due to differences in the life histories of landslide colonizers.

3. Herbivores, pathogens, and non-native species influence landslide succession and contribute to the variety of successional trajectories found on landslides, potentially with long-term consequences. …

Chapter 4 Biological Consequences For Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Landslide colonists have adaptations to survive low-nutrient, unstable substrates, where they may also experience temperature and water stress. Many of the species that colonize landslides are found exclusively in disturbed habitats and are known as gap specialists. Other colonists are common species in the adjacent undisturbed environment where their proximity to the landslide may have enabled rapid dispersal.

2. Microbes (including bacteria and fungi) are probably the first organisms to disperse to and colonize landslides. Symbiotic relationships, such as lichens, and plants with mycorrhizal fungi or nitrogen fixing bacteria, represent adaptations for survival in newly exposed, lownutrient landslide substrates. …

Chapter 3 Physical Causes And Consequences For Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. The propensity for a landslide to occur is largely determined by potential slip planes, or weakness planes in the geological substrate, where the driving forces exceed resisting forces.

2. Landslide occurrence across the landscape is often unpredictable; substrates can be resistant to slippage for centuries and then suddenly experience instability that may result from human or non-human changes that disrupt the balance between driving and resisting forces at a slip plane.

3. Post-landslide erosion is common and can contribute as much as 33% of the total sediment loss from the site of landslide initiation. Such post-landslide erosion can continue …

Chapter 2 Spatial Patterns For Landslide Ecology, Lawrence R. Walker, Aaron B. Shiels

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Remote sensing tools have greatly improved the mapping of both terrestrial and submarine landslides, particularly at global scales. At regional and local scales, environmental correlates are being found that help interpret spatial patterns and related ecological processes on landslides.

2. Landslides are frequent on only 4% of the terrestrial landscape and coverage varies over time because new landslides do not occur at a constant rate.

3. Multiple landslides triggered by the same event, such as an earthquake or severe rainstorm, can vary in physical characteristics. This variety contributes to a mosaic of landslide conditions across the landscape.

4. A …

The Floodplain Food Web Mosaic: A Study Of Its Importance To Salmon And Steelhead With Implications For Their Recovery, J. Ryan Bellmore, Colden V. Baxter, Kyle Martens, Patrick J. Connolly

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Although numerous studies have attempted to place species of interest within the context of food webs, such efforts have generally occurred at small scales or disregard potentially important spatial heterogeneity. If food web approaches are to be employed to manage species, studies are needed that evaluate the multiple habitats and associated webs of interactions in which these species participate. Here, we quantify the food webs that sustain rearing salmon and steelhead within a floodplain landscape of the Methow River, Washington, USA, a location where restoration has been proposed to restore side channels in an attempt to recover anadromous fishes. We …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 6 Wildlife Translocation As A Management Alternative At Airports, Paul D. Curtis, Jonathon D. Cepek, Rebecca Mihalco, Thomas W. Seamans, Scott R. Craven

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife in urban settings may be a welcome sight for many, but negative interactions between people and various wild species are increasing (Conover et al. 1995, Conover 2002). Wildlife populations are commonly managed in part to reduce these conflicts, particularly in high-risk areas such as roadways and airports (Conover 2002). However, the public often opposes lethal control or management methods perceived as causing harm to nuisance animals (Reiter et al. 1999, Conover 2002, Treves et al. 2006), and attitudes vary considerably depending on the particular wildlife species involved (Kretser et al. 2009). Consequently, a variety of nonlethal management approaches are …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 11 Wildlife Conservation And Alternative Land Uses At Airports, James A. Martin, Tara J. Conkling, Jerrold L. Belant, Kristin M. Biondi, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. Devault, Esteban Fernandez-Juricic, Paige M. Schmidt, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Given all the attention paid throughout this book to minimizing the risk of wildlife-aircraft strikes, the title of this chapter may seem like an oxymoron. This book has emphasized management as related to the hazardous (to aircraft) sector of biodiversity. In this chapter we focus on the issue of protection and management of less hazardous taxa, and how altering land use at airports might, in limited circumstances, contribute to this objective.

The term "conservation" often leads to confusion and perceived conflicting goals of management. In fact, many of the direct management techniques used at airports (e.g., deterrents, translocation, etc.) could …

Predictive Models For Escherichia Coli Concentrations At Inland Lake Beaches And Relationship Of Model Variables To Pathogen Detection, Donna S. Francy, Erin A. Stelzer, Joseph W. Duris, Amie M. G. Brady, John H. Harrison, Heather E. Johnson, Michael W. Ware

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Predictive models, based on environmental and water quality variables, have been used to improve the timeliness and accuracy of recreational water quality assessments, but their effectiveness has not been studied in inland waters. Sampling at eight inland recreational lakes in Ohio was done in order to investigate using predictive models for Escherichia coli and to understand the links between E. coli concentrations, predictive variables, and pathogens. Based upon results from 21 beach sites, models were developed for 13 sites, and the most predictive variables were rainfall, wind direction and speed, turbidity, and water temperature. Models were not developed at sites …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Understanding Animal Movements At And Near Airports, Jerrold L. Belant, Brian E. Washburn, Travis L. Devault

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Understanding movements of hazardous wildlife species at and near airports is critical to formulating effective management strategies for reducing aviation risk. Animal movements vary daily, seasonally, and annually and are based on broad biological and ecological concepts, including foraging, reproduction, habitat characteristics, dispersal, and migration. As an energy conservation strategy, most animals minimize their movements to meet life requisites, which in turn presumably improves fitness. Animal movements in relation to airports can be direct; for example, Canada geese (Branta canadensis) flying onto an airfield because grass height and composition are suitable for loafing sites and as food. Animal movements in …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 4 Tactile And Auditory Repellents To Reduce Wildlife Hazards To Aircraft, Thomas W. Seamans, James A. Martin, Jerrold L. Belant

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wildlife within the airport environment are hazards to human safety. Lethal removal of targeted individuals reduces the immediate threat, but other approaches should be integrated into control programs to make them more effective and to help meet legal and ethical considerations (Dolbeer et al. 1995). When negative media attention, special interest groups, or calls for restrictive legislation influence public opinion, the resulting public pressure can preclude effective wildlife management and lead to subsequent population control problems (Torres et al. 1996, Coolahan and Snider 1998, Conover 2001). Nonlethal management activities to reduce wildlife use of airports may include habitat modification, exclusion …

Disease In A Dynamic Landscape: Host Behavior And Wildfire Reduce Amphibian Chytrid Infection, Blake R. Hossack, Winsor H. Lowe, Joy L. Ware, Paul Stephen Corn

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Disturbances are often expected to magnify effects of disease, but these effects may depend on the ecology, behavior, and life history of both hosts and pathogens. In many ecosystems, wildfire is the dominant natural disturbance and thus could directly or indirectly affect dynamics of many diseases. To determine how probability of infection by the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) varies relative to habitat use by individuals, wildfire, and host characteristics, we sampled 404 boreal toads (Anaxyrus boreas boreas) across Glacier National Park, Montana (USA). Bd causes chytridiomycosis, an emerging infectious disease linked with widespread amphibian declines, including the …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 7 Population Management To Reduce The Risk Of Wildlife-Aircraft Collisions, Richard A. Dolbeer, Alan B. Franklin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Four basic control strategies mitigate the risks to aviation caused by wildlife at airports: (1) aircraft flight schedule modification (primarily at military airbases) and enhancement of aircraft visibility to avoid interactions with wildlife (e.g., Blackwell et al. 2009b, 2012); (2) habitat modification and elimination of food, water, and cover that attract wildlife (Cleary and Dolbeer 2005, Blackwell et al. 2009a; Chapters 5,8-10); (3) repellent and harassment techniques to disperse wildlife (Cleary and Dolbeer 2005; Chapters 2-4); and (4) wildlife population management (e.g., Dolbeer 1998). As discussed throughout this book, successful efforts to mitigate the risk of wildlife-aircraft strikes at airports …

Wildlife In Airport Environments: Chapter 9 Managing Airport Stormwater To Reduce Attraction To Wildlife, Bradley F. Blackwell, David Felstul, Thomas W. Seamans

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An airport is a component of the landscape, contributing to and subject to local- and landscapelevel factors that affect wildlife populations and the hazards that these species pose to aviation (Blackwell et al. 2009, Martin et al. 2011). Water resources at and near an airport, in the form of both surface water and contained runoff, are recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as potential attractants to wildlife that pose hazards to aviation safety (FAA 2007). Surface water, including aboveground stormwater detention/retention facilities (see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 2006), can represent a substantial proportion of the area within siting criteria …

On The Halophytic Nature Of Mangroves, Ken W. Krauss, Marilyn C. Ball

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Scientists have discussed the halophytic nature of intertidal plants for decades, and have generally suggested that inherent differentiation of an obligate halophyte from a facultative halophyte relates strongly to whether the plant can survive in fresh water, and not much else. In this minireview, we provide additional insight to support the pervasive notion that mangroves as a group are truly facultative halophytes, and thus add discourse to the alternate view that mangroves have an obligate salinity requirement. Indeed, growth and physiological optima are realized at moderate salinity concentrations in mangroves, but we maintain the notion that current evidence suggests that …