Evan London presented his research entitled “Variation in the Thrill Seeking Gene (DRD4) of White-tailed Deer (O. virginianus)”at the Annual Meeting of The Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society (ICTWS) showcase at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Student Union, in April 2019.

Evan has been working on designing and validating primers that can be used to study genetic variation of the gene coding for DRD4 in white-tailed deer. Genetic variation within DRD4 gene could potentially be an underlying factor in some behaviors of deer, such as automobile collision, migration patterns, the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, urban habitation, etc. Great job Evan!

Congratulations to undergraduate students Kelsey Martin and Roshni Mathur who did an amazing job presenting posters at the Annual Meeting of The Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society (ICTWS) showcase at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Student Union.

Roshni Mathur presented results on the exposure of raccoons and opossums to seven Leptospira Spp., and their potential role as host reservoirs on her poster entitled “Do opossums and raccoons shed Leptospira?”

Kelsey Martin presented how to identify key differences between bovine and avian tuberculosis in white-tailed deer, focusing on how to detect signs of disease and how to mitigate transmission to humans during field dressing on her poster entitled “Differences between Bovine and Avian Tuberculosis in white-tailed deer”