Diagnostic

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) conducts surveillance in wild birds to facilitate early detection and situational awareness for high consequence pathogens, including highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses.

Notable cases at the National Wildlife Health Center are highlighted here in the Pathology Case of the Month Series.

Instructions for reporting wildlife morbidity/mortality and submitting specimens to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC).

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease that impacts populations of deer, elk, moose, and other cervid species caused by an infectious protein called a prion.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae, the deer family. The development of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay has the potential to transform laboratory research of prions and provide new opportunities for improved surveillance and management.

Avian influenza is a viral disease caused by various strains of avian influenza viruses that can be classified as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) or highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). It remains a global disease with potential high consequence with the potential to threaten wildlife, agriculture, and human health.

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) conducts laboratory investigations to determine the causes of wildlife mortality events, especially large-scale die-offs or those that are otherwise unusual.

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) diagnosed West Nile Virus (WNV) in numerous eared grebes and bald eagles that died in a 2013 mortality event in the Great Salt Lake (GSL). Diagnoses were based on findings during pathological analysis to determine cause of death, including molecular detection of WNV genetic material in tissues, and isolation of WNV from multiple tissues from each...