Publications

Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from brain or heart tissue from 15 southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) in cell cultures. These strains were used to infect mice that developed antibodies to T. gondii as detected in the modified direct agglutination test and had T. gondii tissue cysts in their brains at necropsy. Mouse brains containing tissue cysts from 4 of the strains were fed to 4 cats. T

The Mississippi Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pulla) reintroduction program is the largest crane reintroduction effort in the world. Here we report on a 4-year experiment in which we compared post-release survival rates of 56 hand-reared and 76 parent-reared Mississippi Sandhill Cranes. First-year survival was 80%. Surprisingly, hand-reared cranes survived better than parent-reared birds, and th

We sampled Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) at five locations near coastal Finland in 1997 and 1998 for evidence of exposure to arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, mercury, magnesium, molybdenum, lead, selenium, and zinc. Livers and kidneys were collected from adult males and females found dead and hunter-killed males, and livers were collected from ducklings. Two adult females, one of w

During a routine telemetry flight of the Mojave Desert (California, USA) in August 1995, mortality signals were detected from two of 12 radio-collared female desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in the vicinity of Old Dad Peak in San Bernardino County (California). A series of field investigations determined that at least 45 bighorn sheep had died near two artificial water catchments (guzzlers),

Seven immature green turtles, Chelonia mydas, captured from Kaneohe Bay on the island of Oahu were used to evaluate methods for assessing their immune response. Two turtles each were immunized intramuscularly with egg white lysozyme (EWL) in Freund’s complete adjuvant, Gerbu, or ISA-70; a seventh turtle was immunized with saline only and served as a control. Humoral immune response was measured wi

Sediment ingestion is sometimes the principal route by which waterfowl are exposed to environmental contaminants, and at severely contaminated sites waterfowl have been killed by ingesting sediment. Mute swans (Cygnus olor) were fed a diet for 6 weeks with a high but environmentally realistic concentration (24%) of sediment from the moderately polluted Anacostia River in the District of Columbia,

No abstract available.

An epiphytic lichen and a soil lichen in two very closely related genera (Parmelia sulcata and Xanthoparmelia chlorochroa, respectively) were sampled 16 years apart at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and measured for their elemental content. Mercury and cadmium decreased approximately 30% over the time period in both species. Sulfur decreased 8% in the epiphytic species, but incre

Wild rice grain samples from various parts of the world have been found to have elevated concentrations of heavy metals, raising concern for potential effects on human health. It was hypothesized that wild rice from north-central Wisconsin could potentially have elevated concentrations of some heavy metals because of possible exposure to these elements from the atmosphere or from water and sedimen

We tested the efficacy of a single dose of Botumink toxoid for protecting wild green-winged teal (Anas crecca) during botulism epizootics caused by Clostridium botulinum type C. We challenged control and immunized ducks with four different doses of type C botulinum toxin to determine the LD50 for this species and to evaluate vaccine protection. Fewer immunized ducks were affected with botulism tha

The national distribution of information on the discovery of malformations in Minnesota frogs in 1995 stimulated collection and examination of newly metamorphosed frogs during 1996. By late summer and early fall of 1996, malformed frogs and toads were reported on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) lands in Vermont (Northeast, Region 5) and Minnesota (Midwest, Region 3). In response to these re

Four hundred twenty-seven of 441 adult Holstein dairy cattle from a 1,200-cow dairy died over a 1-week period during early spring 1998. Affected animals were from 4 late lactation pens, one of which included the bull string. Signs included weakness, recumbency, watery diarrhea, and death. Eighty animals from the 4 pens were dead approximately 8 hours after the first ill cows were noted. Affected c