Veterinary Medicine Commons^™

Variations, Validations, Degradations, And Noninvasive Determination Of Pregnancy Using Fecal Steroid Metabolites In Free-Ranging Pronghorn, Cole A. Bleke, Eric M. Gese, Susannah S. French

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Pregnancy status is a key parameter used to assess reproductive performance of a species as it represents a starting point for measuring vital rates. Vital rates allow managers to determine trends in populations such as neonate survival and recruitment; two important factors in ungulate population growth rates. Techniques to determine pregnancy have generally involved capture and restraint of the animal to obtain blood samples for determining serum hormone levels. Non-invasive pregnancy assessment, via feces, eliminates any hazards between handler and animal, as well as removes handling-induced physiological biases. Using noninvasive fecal sampling, we conducted hormone validations, investigated pregnancy rates, and …

Satellite-Detected Ammonia Changes In The United States: Natural Or Anthropogenic Impacts, Yaqian He, Rongting Xu, Stephen A. Prior, Di Yang, Anni Yang, Jian Chen

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Ammonia (NH3) is the most abundant alkaline component and can react with atmospheric acidic species to form aerosols that can lead to numerous environmental and health issues. Increasing atmospheric NH3 over agricultural regions in the US has been documented. However, spatiotemporal changes of NH3 concentrations over the entire US are still not thoroughly understood, and the factors that drive these changes remain unknown. Herein, we applied the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) monthly NH3 dataset to explore spatiotemporal changes in atmospheric NH3 and the empirical relationships with synthetic N fertilizer application, livestock manure production, and climate factors across the entire US …

Cytoarchitectural Characteristics Associated With Cognitive Flexibility In Raccoons, Joanna Jacob, Molly Kent, Sarah Benson-Amram, Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Mary Ann Raghanti, Emily Ploppert, Jack Drake, Bilal Hindi, Nick R. Natale, Sarah Daniels, Rachel Fanelli, Anderson Miller, Tim Landis, Amy Gilbert, Shylo Johnson, Annie Lai, Molly Hyer, Amanda Rzucidlo, Chris Anchor, Stan Gehrt, Kelly Lambert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

With rates of psychiatric illnesses such as depression continuing to rise, additional preclinical models are needed to facilitate translational neuroscience research. In the current study, the raccoon (Procyon lotor) was investigated due to its similarities with primate brains, including comparable proportional neuronal densities, cortical magnification of the forepaw area, and cortical gyrification. Specifically, we report on the cytoarchitectural characteristics of raccoons profiled as high, intermediate, or low solvers in a multiaccess problem-solving task. Isotropic fractionation indicated that high-solvers had significantly more cells in the hippocampus (HC) than the other solving groups; further, a nonsignificant trend suggested that this …

Adaptation Of An Artificial Bait To An Automated Aerial Delivery System For Landscape-Scale Brown Treesnake Suppression, Rafael A. Garcia, Thomas W. Mcauliffe, Lorelie P. Bumanlag, Shane R. Siers, Bruce A. Kimball

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Dead neonatal mice are currently used as bait for delivery of toxin to invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) on Guam; once deployed in the field the mice are highly attractive to the snakes but only for about four days. An artificial bait containing a mixture of fats mimicking those in skin of the mice is also highly attractive to the snakes and remains attractive 2–3 times longer. The artificial bait, however, costs more than the mice, and is more difficult to attach to the capsules of a novel aerial bait delivery system. This paper describes a reformulation of the bait …

Movement, Space-Use And Resource Preferences Of European Golden Jackals In Human-Dominated Landscapes: Insights From A Telemetry Study, Skye Fenton, Paul R. Moorcroft, Duško Ćirović, József Lanszki, Miklós Heltai, Francesca Cagnacci, Stewart Breck, Neda Bogdanović, Ilija Pantelić, Kornél Ács, Nathan Ranc

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

During the last half-century, the distribution of golden jackals (Canis aureus) has rapidly increased throughout Europe. Today, golden jackals are thriving in human-dominated landscapes across Southeastern and Central Europe. Most studies on golden jackals have focused on large-scale distribution patterns; to date, little is known about the species’ fine-scale spatial ecology. In this study, we analyzed the movement behavior, space-use and resource selection of six golden jackals fitted with GPS-GSM collars in two study areas in Hungary and Serbia. Two of the jackals were a breeding pair. We found that home range size averaged 11.2 km² (90% …

Effects Of Translocation On Survival Of Nuisance Bears, Javan Bauder, D. Ruid, N. M. Roberts, B. Kohn, M. L. Allen

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Effective mitigation of human–wildlife conflict should aim to reduce conflicts while also minimizing wildlife mortality. Translocation is often used to mitigate human–wildlife conflict but translocated individuals may have reduced survival, which could negatively affect population growth and social acceptance of translocation as a management tool. Yet, non-translocated nuisance individuals may also have low survival due to inherent risks associated with nuisance behavior. We used a 38-year dataset of 1233 marked and translocated nuisance American black bears (Ursus americanus) as a model system with which to evaluate the impacts of translocation on nuisance bear survival. We used multi-state mark-recapture models to …

Threading The Needle: How Humans Influence Predator–Prey Spatiotemporal Interactions In A Multiple-Predator System, Asia Murphy, Duane R. Diefenbach, Mark Ternent, Matt Lovallo, David Miller

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Perceived predation risk and the resulting antipredator behaviour varies across space, time and predator identity. Communities with multiple predators that interact and differ in their use of space, time of activity and hunting mode create a complex landscape for prey to avoid predation. Anthropogenic presence and disturbance have the potential to shift interactions among predators and prey and the where and when encounters occur. We examined how white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus fawn spatiotemporal antipredator behaviour differed along an anthropogenic disturbance gradient that had black bears Ursus americanus, coyotes Canis latrans, bobcats Lynx rufus and humans present. We quantified (a) spatial …

Occurrence Of Potentially Zoonotic And Cephalosporin Resistant Enteric Bacteria Among Shelter Dogs In The Central And South-Central Appalachia, Ashutosh Verma, Kimberly Carney, Marina Taylor, Kaitlyn Amsler, Joey Morgan, Karen Gruszynski, Erdal Erol, Craig N. Carter, Stephan Locke, Ashton Callipare, Devendra H. Shah

Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance and presence of zoonotic enteropathogens in shelter dogs pose a public health risk to shelter workers and potential adopters alike. In this study we investigated the prevalence of zoonotic bacterial pathogens and cephalosporin resistant (Cef^R) enteric bacteria in the feces of apparently healthy shelter dogs in the Cumberland Gap Region (CGR) in the US states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

RESULTS: Fecal samples of 59 dogs from 10 shelters in the CGR of Central and South-Central Appalachia were screened for the presence of Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella and Cef^R enteric bacteria. C. …

Oral Microbiome And Gingival Gene Expression Of Inflammatory Biomolecules With Aging And Periodontitis, Jeffrey L. Ebersole, Radhakrishnan Nagarajan, Sreenatha Kirakodu, Octavio A. Gonzalez

Dental Medicine Faculty Research

Although data describe the presence and increase of inflammatory mediators in the local environment in periodontitis vs. health in humans, details regarding how these responses evolve in the transition from health to disease, changes during disease progression, and features of a resolved lesion remain unknown. This study used a nonhuman primate model of ligature-induced periodontitis in young, adolescent, adult, and aged animals to document features of inflammatory response affected by age. Rhesus monkeys had ligatures tied and provided gingival tissue biopsy specimens at baseline, 0.5, 1, and 3 months of disease and at 5 months of the study, which was …

Quantitative Proteomics And Phosphoproteomics Reveal Tnf-Α-Mediated Protein Functions In Hepatocytes, Rodrigo Mohallem, Uma K. Aryal

Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences Faculty Publications

Increased secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα), is often associated with adipose tissue dysregulation, which often accompanies obesity. High levels of TNFα have been linked to the development of insulin resistance in several tissues and organs, including skeletal muscle and the liver. In this study, we examined the complex regulatory roles of TNFα in murine hepatocytes utilizing a combination of global proteomic and phosphoproteomic analyses. Our results show that TNFα promotes extensive changes not only of protein levels, but also the dynamics of their downstream phosphorylation signaling. We provide evidence that TNFα induces DNA replication and …

In Situ Imaging Of Bacterial Outer Membrane Projections And Associated Protein Complexes Using Electron Cryo-Tomography, Mohammed Kaplan, Georges Chreifi, Lauren Ann Metskas, Janine Liedtke, Cecily R. Wood, Catherine M. Oikonomou, William J. Nicolas, Poorna Subramanian, Lori A. Zacharoff, Yuhang Wang, Yi-Wei Chang, Morgan Beeby, Megan J. Dobro, Yongtao Zhu, Mark J. Mcbride, Ariane Briegel, Carrie L. Shaffer, Grant J. Jensen

Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The ability to produce outer membrane projections in the form of tubular membrane extensions (MEs) and membrane vesicles (MVs) is a widespread phenomenon among diderm bacteria. Despite this, our knowledge of the ultrastructure of these extensions and their associated protein complexes remains limited. Here, we surveyed the ultrastructure and formation of MEs and MVs, and their associated protein complexes, in tens of thousands of electron cryo-tomograms of ~90 bacterial species that we have collected for various projects over the past 15 years (Jensen lab database), in addition to data generated in the Briegel lab. We identified outer MEs and MVs …

Cryopreservation Methods Of Thai Native Chicken (Pradu-Hangdum) Semen: Effect Of Different Freezing Containers On Motion And Kinetic Parameters Of Frozen-Thawed Sperm, Chakorn Khunkaew, Prapas Patchanee, Sasithorn Panasophonkul, Zubing Cao, Yunhai Zhang, Anucha Sathanawongs

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Artificial Insemination (AI) programs using qualified semen are designed to revolutionize the poultry farming sector by targeting genetic improvement along with appropriate health strategies. Hence, a prolonged preservation method of quality sperm conserves is important for successful AI outcomes. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of different type of containers; straw, cryovial tubes and pellet on the quality of the frozen-thawed Thai native chicken (Pradu-hangdum) semen. High-quality pooled semen was collected and divided into 4 groups with 12 replicates: semen preserved with BHSV extender in 1) 0.25 mL straw, 2) 0.5 mL straw, 3) 2 mL …

The Effects Of Endometrial Epithelium-Derived Exosomes On The Recruitment And Activation Of T Lymphocytes In The Uteri Of Dairy Cows, Hong An, Zhe Shi, Bofan Fu, Xinxin Yao, Hemin Ni, Yong Guo, Longfei Xiao, Xiangguo Wang

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

Endometritis is caused by endometrial cell injury and chronic inflammation of uteri infected by pathogens, leading to reproductive failure in dairy cows. Changes of the endometrial immune response regulates the development of endometritis. In a recent discovery, exosomes acted as a functional regulator secreted by a variety of cells, however, its regulatory mechanism in the local immune response of the uteri is still unclear. In this study, flow cytometry was performed to identify the increased number of T lymphocytes, namely Tc cells, in the uteri with endometritis while the Th and Treg cells decreased very significantly. Moreover, the functional marker …

Biocompatibility And Postoperative Complications Of Different Subcutaneous Suturing Methods In Cats Undergoing Ovariohysterectomy By Midline Incision, Ameer Hamza Rabbani, Yasir Razzaq Khan, Omer Naseer, Qudratullah, Hafiz Muhammad Safwan, Abdul Waheed, Ahmad Ali, Muhammad Waqas

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

This study evaluated the clinical efficacy of three different closure techniques on postoperative pain and surgical complications in cats. It was a randomized, clinical trial conducted at different veterinary clinics in Lahore, Pakistan. Forty-eight (n = 48) cats underwent midline incision for ovariohysterectomy and were assigned to one of three Groups representing different closure methods. In Group A, continuous subcutaneous apposition was carried out with buried knots and intermittent tacking to the rectus fascia (Group A, n=16) in a quilting fashion to obliterate dead space using Polyglactin 910 (Vicryl™) USP 3-0 suture, superimposed by horizontal mattress pattern employing Polypropylene (Prolene™) …

Immunostimulatory Effect Of Disinfectant On Bees, Tatiana Romanishina, Svitlana Guralska, Tetiana Kot, Svitlana Furman, Oleh Pinsky, Diana Feshchenko, Zhanna Rybachuk, Olexiy Tkachenko, Olga Zastulka, Svitlana Tushak

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

The article presents a modern interpretation of the immunostimulatory effect of the disinfectant “Biocontact Plus” on the bee organism. The minimum threshold concentrations of the disinfectant with bactericidal effect were determined in vitro. The stimulating effect of 0.15 % of the concentration of active substances of the disinfectant has been confirmed in vivo. The immunostimulatory effect of this concentration on the immune status of bee colonies is interpreted (the number of young and mature immunocytes). The immunomodulatory effect of 0.15 % disinfectant “Biocontact Plus” on bee haemolymph allows for the use of alternative therapies for bacterial diseases of bees in …

Retrospective Survey Of The Patterns Of Prescription And Request For Vitamins, Minerals And Vitamin-Mineral Formulations For Dogs In A Veterinary Hospital In Nigeria, Thelma Ebele Ihedioha, Isaac Uzoma Asuzu, John Anaelom Nwanta

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

This study evaluated the patterns of prescription/request of vitamins, minerals and vitamin-mineral formulations (V-MF) for dogs presented for veterinary care at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Nsukka (VTHN), Nigeria, between January 2013 and December 2017. Hospital records of a total of 4074 dogs were used for the study. Overall, vitamins, minerals and V-MF were prescribed/requested for 3096 out of the 4074 cases (75.33%). The frequency of prescription/requests for vitamins, minerals and V-MF significantly (p =0.000) increased from 54.1% in 2013 to 87.8% (highest) recorded in 2016 and the effect size of the variations across time was very strong (ɸc=0.268). Vitamin B-Complex …

Systemic Aspergillosis Involving The Mediastinum Associated With Antifungal Therapy In A Dog, Nawat Sannamwong, Saikaew Sutayatram, Nardtiwa Chaivoravitsakul, Patharakrit Teewasutrakul, Sawang Kesdangsakonwut, Chollada Buranakarl

The Thai Journal of Veterinary Medicine

A four-year old, intact female Labrador Retriever dog was presented with a history and clinical signs of vomiting, anorexia and mild dyspnea. Further laboratory examination, by specific canine pancreatic lipase (cPL) test kit and abdominal ultrasound, indicated acute pancreatitis. Results from thoracic radiography and computerized tomography scan showed masses in the cranial and middle mediastinal areas. A cytology examination revealed pyogranulomatous inflammation with the presence of fungal hyphae whereas Aspergillus niger was isolated and identified. Systemic aspergillosis was diagnosed. Many antifungal drugs were introduced and the clinical outcomes were discussed with careful consideration.

Plague Exposure In Mammalian Wildlife Across The Western United States, Sarah N. Bevins, Jeffrey C. Chandler, Nicole Barrett, Brandon S. Schmit, Gerald W. Wiscomb, Susan A. Shriner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Plague is caused by a bacterial pathogen (Yersinia pestis) that can infect a wide range of mammal species, but its presence in wildlife is often underappreciated. Using a large-scale data set (n = 44,857) that details the extent of Y. pestis exposure in wildlife, we document exposure in 18 wildlife species, including coyotes (Canis latrans), bobcats (Lynx rufus), and black bears (Ursus americanus). Evidence of plague activity is widespread, with seropositive animals detected in every western state in the contiguous United States. Pathogen monitoring systems in wildlife that are both large scale …

Scaup Depredation On Arkansas Baitfish And Sportfish Aquaculture, Stephen A. Clements, Brian S. Dorr, J. Brian Davis, Luke A. Roy, Carole R. Engle, Katie Hanson-Dorr, Anita M. Kelly

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Lesser scaup (Aythya affinis) and greater scaup (A. marila), hereafter scaup, consume a variety of aquatic invertebrates, plants, and occasionally small fish. Scaup have foraged on commercial aquaculture farms in the southern United States for decades. However, the types, abundance, and rate of fish exploitation by scaup on baitfish and sportfish farms are not well documented. Thus, information is needed to understand how fish and other foods influence scaup use of aquatic resources, and any potential economic effects of depredation of fish. From November–March in winters 2016–2017 and 2017–2018, we conducted 1,458 pond surveys to …

Data-Driven Management—A Dynamic Occupancy Approach To Enhanced Rabies Surveillance Prioritization, Amy J. Davis, Jordana D. Kirby, Richard B. Chipman, Kathleen M. Nelson, Amy T. Gilbert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rabies lyssavirus (RABV) is enzootic in raccoons across the eastern United States. Intensive management of RABV by oral rabies vaccination (ORV) has prevented its spread westward and shown evidence of local elimination in raccoon populations of the northeastern US. The USDA, Wildlife Services, National Rabies Management Program (NRMP) collaborates with other agencies to implement broad-scale ORV and conducts extensive monitoring to measure the effectiveness of the management. Enhanced Rabies Surveillance (ERS) was initiated during 2005 and updated in 2016 to direct surveillance efforts toward higher-value specimens by assigning points to different methods of encountering specimens for collection (strange-acting, roadkill, surveillance-trapped, …