Mission Statement: This initiative seeks to promote interdisciplinary - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mission Statement: This initiative seeks to promote interdisciplinary science, education and outreach that increase the health and production of captive cervids in a sustainable manner and promotes the health of native wildlife and the ecosystems in which they live.

Who we are:

Director

• Samantha Wisely, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

CHeRI Affiliate Scientists

• Jason Blackburn, Geography
• Nathan Burkett-Cadena, Florida Medical Entomology Lab
• John Lednicky, Environmental and Global Health
• Katherine Sayler, Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
• Tom Waltzek, Pathobiology
• Jim Wellehan, Zoo Medicine Program

Current Projects:

• Best Management Practices to Curb

Hemorrhagic Disease

• Pathogens and parasites shared by livestock

and cervids

• Risk assessment and disease prevention for

Parelaphostrongylus spp. infection

Hemorrhagic Disease Objectives:

Decrease morbidity and mortality via:

• Integrated pest management
• Diagnostics
• Best farm management practices

Study Area

Integrated pest management:

Current research objectives

• Identify competent vectors of HD in Florida
• Identify larval habitats of Culicoides
• Work with pesticide companies on targeted

delivery systems

• Map distribution of Culicoides spp. and create

predictive map of emergence based on climate variables

Culicoides Community Ecology

• LED light traps in a

random stratified design

• Larval substrate

collection

• Aspirate feeding

Culicoides off tame deer

• Molecular-based

bloodmeal analysis

• In which habitats are

different Culicoides

• spp. found?
• In what habitats do

different Culicoides

• spp. develop?
• Which species feed
• n white-tailed

deer?

• Which vertebrate

species are hosts to Culicoides?

Site 1: At edge of improved pasture, formerly sand pit Site 16: Deep in forest canopy of

• ak hammock

Bloodmeal analysis results

Diagnostics:

Current research objectives:

• Correlate morbidity and mortality of deer with

serotype and genotype of viruses

• Establish library of isolates from Florida
• Understand viral mechanisms underlying

virulence and pathogenicity

– Quasispecies, Genotype, Recombination

• Role of co-infection

• Waltzek/Wellehan Conventional Diagnostic Methods (2000 – 2010)

– 35 herpesviruses

– 15 adenoviruses – 7 papillomaviruses – 5 poxviruses – 6 iridoviruses – 6 reoviruses – 6 astroviruses – 1 coronavirus

• Waltzek/Wellehan NGS (2011 – 2015)

– > 100 novel pathogens (viruses, bacteria, etc.)

– Highlights include: Novel Picornaviruses, Bunyaviruses, Hepeviruses, Papillomaviruses Mimiviruses, Poxviruses… – Diagnostics for OIE reportable pathogens (KHV, RSIV, Ranavirus)

3 2 1

Waltzek et al. 2007, 2011

Wildlife & Aquatic Veterinary Disease Laboratory

Diagnostics & Pathogen Discovery

Necropsy performed on 21 animals in 2015: 1 with clinical signs and gross pathology consistent with HD

• Arcanobacterium

pyogenes

• Pseudomonas sp.
• E. coli isolated from

kidneys

• Enterobacter cloacae
• 17 of 21 animals were fawns
• NONE of the fawns had signs consistent with EHD/BTV
• One of 21 animals had confirmed HD (adult white-tailed deer buck)
• Other causes of mortality included primary bacterial pneumonia,

septicemia, caused by infection w/:

Serology: BTV cELISA and EHD VNT

N=81 captive cervids April- October, 2015

• 6 species were sampled: North

American elk, fallow deer, black buck, Pere David’s deer, axis deer, white- tailed deer

• 44% of exotics were seropositive for

EHD, 33% for BTV

• 77.8% of captive white-tails were

seropositive for EHD, 34.2% for BTV

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Collaborations? Please contact Dr. Samantha Wisely, wisely@ufl.edu http://www.wec.ufl.edu/cheri/