Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Laboratory
Illinois Natural History Survey • Prairie Research Institute
A DNA Sequencing Strategy for Studying Novelty-seeking Behavior in White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Shadow of the Prion Protein in Chronic Wasting Disease Wild White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
By VIVIAN LA | Assistant Daytime Editor
White-tailed deer in Illinois and other states can be infected with COVID-19, and Illinois researchers have concerns about how humans passed on the virus and what it means for the future of pandemic.
In November, hundreds of white-tailed deer in Iowa tested positive for COVID-19, suggesting that humans are spreading the virus to animal populations and among one another.
This came after the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study in August stating that COVID-19 antibodies were found in deer populations in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania. These antibodies suggested that deer were exposed but potentially not infected.
Read the whole story at The Daily Illini website, here.
“Some advantages of including the ELISA test are that ELISA uses fresh tissue, eliminating exposure to Formaldehyde for those taking and processing the samples. Furthermore, fresh samples can be shipped frozen and stored in less expensive containers (e.g., Whirl-Pak bags). Thus, they require less storage space and, therefore, reduce shipping costs. In addition, ELISA typically has a 4-day turnaround for results depending on the capacity of the diagnostic laboratory.”
CHAMPAIGN, IL – During the fiscal year 2021, the IDNR surveillance management program—in partnership with Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the University of Missouri Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory—, improved the turnaround time of results of CWD by using a combination of ELISA test (for large-scale hunter harvest surveillance) and Immunohistochemistry (for “special permit surveillance” from IDNR and “suspect deer surveillance”).
Read the whole story at the Outdoor Illinois Wildlife Journal, here.
Parasitic infections in birds are a significant threat to the health and conservation of avian species. Avian haemosporidian parasites are blood parasites found globally in birds. These blood parasites have a non-specific, broad range of avian hosts and are transmitted by biting vectors that participate in the parasites’ life cycle (Figure 1). For example, Leucocytozoon parasites are transmitted to birds by black flies, and mosquitoes transmit Plasmodium parasites (responsible for malaria) and Haemoproteus parasites. Similar to human malaria, infected birds may develop malaria-like disease,
You need to know that Leptospirosis is a disease caused by the bacteria Leptospira. The Leptospira bacteria are spread through infected animals’ urine, which can get into water or soil and survive there for weeks to months.1 The number of new cases of Leptospirosis has increased in humans and canines across North America. You also need to know that Leptospirosis in humans may cause mild flu-like symptoms, such as chills and headaches. However, when the bacteria affect organs, such as the liver, lungs, heart, and kidneys, it causes a more severe reaction that can lead to organ failure.2 The most severe Leptospirosis is commonly known as Weil’s disease in humans.3 Animals may suffer from a subclinical infection with mild symptoms to a more advanced condition involving multiple-organ failure and subsequent death.
Leptospirosis’s clinical signs and symptoms will depend on the animal species infected and the type of Leptospira serovar affecting them (a serovar is a variation in the Leptospira bacteria, also known as bacterial strain). Muscle pain, pancreatitis, uveitis (eye inflammation), dysuria (pain while urinating), hemolytic anemia, or respiratory disease are some of the clinical problems developed by animals. Leptospirosis in pregnant animals may result in abortion, stillbirths, weak newborns, or
In 2015, around 6 million deer were harvested during the US’s legal hunting season, which is the same number as the total estimated deer population in the US and Canada combined in 1948 (Barlett 1949; QDMA, 2017). With the increasing white-tailed deer population in the Midwest region, carrying capacity—the resource availability to sustain a species population without causing environmental degradation of the land—is critical to the deer health. As it turns out, female pregnancy rates and reproductive characteristics are associated with the number of resources in the habitat available to the white-tailed deer population (Roseberry and Woolf, 1998).
The study, Reproductive Characteristics of Female White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Midwestern USA (Green et al. 2017), helps us understand the tight and complicated relationships between female white-tailed deer and their fetuses. The evide
Continue reading “One Female Deer Can Have Multiple Fetuses, How Many and Why Should We Care?”
“My training in this lab makes me more conscious of the proper ways to deal with infectious biological material, an invaluable benefit during COVID-19. “
CHAMPAIGN, IL – Inspired by the challenges we are all confronting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, undergraduate student Rachel Lupas shares her experiences as a biosafety level two epidemiology laboratory member. Rachel is and undergraduate student and member of the Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Laboratory led by Dr. Nohra Mateus-Pinilla.
Read the whole story at the Illinois New Bureau website, here.
SPRINGFIELD, IL – In response to rising positivity rates of COVID-19 and in an effort to help ensure the health and safety of Illinois hunters and Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) staff, the IDNR today announced the closure of all Deer Check Stations during the upcoming firearm deer hunting seasons, slated for Nov. 20-22 and Dec. 3-6, 2020. For more information please visit the IDNR website, here.
CWD SAMPLING VENDORS: The following locations are serving as CWD sampling stations, taking samples from entire deer or deer heads from October 1, 2020 thru Jan. 17, 2021 [CWD Sampling Vendors]
CWD HEAD DROP-OFF STATIONS: The following sites are serving as self-serve drop-off sites where hunters can fill out a sample submission card and leave adult deer heads [CWD Head Drop-off stations]
Here is a complete list of CWD Sampling Locations.
For more information about the Hunt Illinois program, visit the website here.
Test results will be posted by hunter phone number on the IDNR website at: http://www.dnr.illinois.gov/programs/CWD/Pages/TestResults.aspx
“They found that some regions of Illinois had somewhat higher proportions of genetically protected deer. This genetic advantage does not ensure that a deer is entirely resistant to CWD. Still, the two types of protective DNA sequences could elicit a high level of protection, suggesting that specific areas may see a lower prevalence of CWD in the population due to this genetic advantage.”
CHAMPAIGN, IL – When talking about infectious diseases, are there advantages or disadvantages associated with our genes? And how does this translate to prion diseases? In this article, the authors describe how by examining the Prion protein gen, researchers have been able to identify protective DNA sequences, with potential genetic advantage to CWD in some populations of Illinois white-tailed deer.
Read the whole story at the Outdoor Illinois Wildlife Journal, here.
“Today is an ordinary day, but it’s filled with heartwarming lessons. Our differences don’t make us feel distant from one another. Instead they help us grow closer together and become stronger every day.”
CHAMPAIGN, IL – Undergraduate student and James Scholar, Yi-Ying Tung, shares her experiences as a member of multidisciplinary and multicultural research labs. She works for Dr. Nohra Mateus-Pinilla and Dr. Jan Novakofski at the Novakofski & Mateus Chronic Wasting Disease Collaborative Labs and the Wildlife Veterinary Epidemiology Lab. Yi-Ying is taking part in a project that explores the transmission of chronic wasting disease from mother to offspring white-tailed deer.
Read the whole story at the Illinois New Bureau website, here.