Publications

Plague is a flea-vectored disease introduced to North America c. 1900. It is lethal to many American mammal species, causes major die-offs (epizootics) in some populations, and may be ecologically disruptive even at lower interepizootic (enzootic) levels of transmission. We sought to determine the effects of enzootic plague on survival of Mexican woodrats (Neotoma mexicana) and to test the hypothe

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) Quarterly Mortality Report provides brief summaries of epizootic mortality and morbidity events by quarter. The write-ups, highlighting epizootic events and other wildlife disease topics of interest, are published in the Wildlife Disease Association quarterly newsletter. A link is provided in this WDA newsletter to the Wildlife Health Information Sha

Pseudogymnoascus destructans is a fungal pathogen that causes white‐nose syndrome, an emerging and fatal disease of North American bats that has led to unprecedented population declines. As a psychrophile, P. destructans is adapted to infect bats during winter hibernation, when host metabolic activity and core body temperature are greatly reduced. The ability to maintain and cultivate isolates of 

The development of models to elucidate the transmission pathways and dynamics of wildlife diseases remains challenging. Sylvatic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (Yp), is an infectious zoonotic disease that primarily affects wild rodents, including prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) in North America. Proposed transmission pathways for Yp include flea bites, direct contacts between hosts, a

A step-by-step guide to “put a dot on the WHISPers map” by creating an event. Available to users assigned Partner User, Partner Manager, and Partner Administrator roles.

Invasive rodents on islands have adverse effects on native birds in island ecosystems, and rats are the most common culprits. Recently, house mice (Mus musculus) in the South Atlantic were found preying on three species of albatross chicks. Here, we show that house mice can also prey on nesting adult Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge (US). In contr

As part of the national recovery effort, endangered black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) were reintroduced to the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, US in 2000. Despite an encouraging start, numbers of ferrets at the site have declined. In an effort to determine possible causes of the population decline, we undertook a pathogen survey in 2012 to detect exposure to West Nile virus

Samples from eight species of corals (Colpophyllia natans, Dendrogyra cylindrus, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Meandrina meandrites, Montastraea cavernosa, Orbicella faveolata, Pseudodiploria strigosa, and Siderastrea siderea) that exhibited gross clinical signs of acute, subacute, or chronic tissue loss attributed to stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) were collected from the Florida Reef Tract

The National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) System protects ~150 million acres of land and water in the United States and provides habitat for >2,000 native vertebrates species. Although legally protected, wildlife populations within these refuges can be threatened by anthropogenic activities. The lack of knowledge about such threats has the potential to undermine biodiversity conservation. We investigate

The recently emerged novel coronavirus, SARS‐CoV‐2, is phylogenetically related to bat coronaviruses (CoVs), specifically SARS‐related CoVs from the Eurasian bat family Rhinolophidae. As this human pandemic virus has spread across the world, the potential impacts of SARS‐CoV‐2 on native North American bat populations are unknown, as is the ability of North American bats to serve as reservoirs or i

The northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) is one of the bat species most affected by white‐nose syndrome. Population declines attributed to white‐nose syndrome contributed to the species’ listing as federally threatened under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. Although one of the most abundant Myotine bats in eastern North America prior to white‐nose syndrome, little is known about northe

Utah prairie dogs (Cynomys parvidens) are federally threatened due to eradication campaigns, habitat destruction, and outbreaks of plague. Today, Utah prairie dogs exist in small, isolated populations, making them less demographically stable and more susceptible to erosion of genetic variation by genetic drift. We characterized patterns of genetic structure at neutral and putatively adaptive loci