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Global warming and over-enrichment of freshwater systems have led to an increase in harmful cyanobacterial blooms (cyanoHABs), affecting human and animal health. The aim of this systematic map was to detail the current literature surrounding cyanotoxin poisonings in terrestrial wildlife and identify possible improvements to reports of morbidity and mortality from cyanotoxins. A systematic search was conducted using the electronic databases Scopus and Web of Science, yielding 5059 published studies identifying 45 separate case reports of wildlife poisonings from North America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Currently, no gold standard for the diagnosis of cyanotoxin intoxication exists for wildlife, and we present suggested guidelines here. These involved immunoassays and analytical chemistry techniques to identify the toxin involved, PCR to identify the cyanobacterial species involved, and evidence of ingestion or exposure to cyanotoxins in the animals affected. Of the 45 cases, our recommended methods concurred with 48.9% of cases. Most often, cases were investigated after a mortality event had already occurred, and where mitigation was implemented, only three cases were successful in their efforts. Notably, only one case of invasive cyanobacteria was recorded in this review despite invasive species being known to occur throughout the globe; this could explain the underreporting of invasive cyanobacteria. This systematic map highlights the perceived absence of robust detection, surveillance, and diagnosis of cyanotoxin poisoning in wildlife. It may be true that wildlife is less susceptible to these poisoning events; however, the true rates of poisoning are likely much more than is reported in the literature.

The Wildlife Health Bridge was established in 2009 with the aim of improving the expertise and knowledge base of wildlife health professionals in biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. The Wildlife Health Bridge centres around partnerships among educational institutions: the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the Wildlife Institute of India, and the University of Melbourne Veterinary School. The Wildlife Health Bridge provides quality education in wildlife health, ecosystem health, and wildlife biology, facilitates the interchange of students between collaborating countries for research studies and provides a global graduate network of wildlife health professionals. In addition to established Masters’ level wildlife health training programmes run by the partner organisations, the Wildlife Health Bridge has developed a collaborative field-based course, Interventions in Wild Animal Health, provided annually in India since 2016, which has trained 138 veterinarians to date, enhancing local and international capacity in managing emerging wildlife health issues and building global professional linkages. The Wildlife Health Bridge’s Wild Animal Alumni network facilitates networking and exchange between Wildlife Health Bridge institutions and graduates, with over 701 members from 67 countries, half of which are biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. Collaboration between educational institutions has enabled new ideas and ongoing developments in the delivery of materials and learning outcomes. The Wildlife Health Bridge is building global capacity in trained wildlife health professionals, through educational programmes and a synergised network, with the aim of impacting conservation practice to benefit human, domestic animal and wildlife health.

Haemorrhagic disease associated with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (Elephantid herpesvirus, EEHV) infections is the leading cause of death for Asian elephant (

Tigers (Panthera tigris spp.) are endangered in the wild; ensuring sustainable insurance populations requires careful planning within zoological collections. In captive situations, contraceptives are often used to control breeding and ensure genetically viable populations that contain manageable numbers of animals; reversible contraceptives are ideal because they offer flexibility for breeding management. Historically, synthetic progestins, such as melengestrol acetate implants, were used in female tigers, but these are associated with an increased risk of reproductive pathology and subsequent infertility. Recent management advice to ex-situ collections has been to transition to the use of gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists, such as deslorelin acetate implants, which do not appear to have a similar risk of reproductive pathology but are associated with highly variable reversal times in exotic felids. Using data from 917 contraceptive records in female tigers captured by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Reproductive Management Center and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria Reproductive Management Group's joint Contraception Database and from supplementary surveys, this study reviews the changing use of contraceptives in captive female tigers. The aim was to describe the historical and current use of contraceptives and provide a comprehensive assessment on the use of deslorelin implants, including data on product protocols, efficacy, pathology, and reversibility. This study determined that current dose, frequency, reversibility, and anatomical placement sites of deslorelin implants are highly variable, indicating that specific, readily available, unified, evidence-based recommendations on the use of deslorelin would be useful for future contraceptive use in managed tiger populations.

Summary Tuberculosis (TB) is an important and widespread disease of wildlife, livestock and humans world-wide, but long-term empirical datasets describing this condition are rare. A population of meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in South Africa's Kalahari Desert have been diagnosed with Mycobacterium suricattae, a novel strain of TB, causing fatal disease in this group-living species. This study aimed to find characteristics associated with clinical TB in meerkats. These characteristics could subsequently be used to identify ‘at-risk’ animals within a population, and target these individuals for control measures. We conducted a retrospective study based on a unique, long-term life-history dataset of over 2000 individually identified animals covering a 14-year period after the first confirmatory diagnosis of TB in this population in 2001. Individual- and group-level risk factors were analysed using time-dependent Cox regression to examine their potential influence on the time to development of end-stage TB. Cases of disease involved 144 individuals in 27 of 73 social groups, across 12 of 14 years (an incidence rate of 3·78 cases/100 study years). At the individual level, increasing age had the greatest effect on risk of disease with a hazard ratio of 4·70 (95% CI: 1·92–11·53, P

Background Sensitive diagnostic tools are necessary for the detection of Mycobacterium suricattae infection in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in order to more clearly understand the epidemiology of tuberculosis and the ecological consequences of the disease in this species. We therefore aimed to develop a cytokine release assay to measure antigen-specific cell-mediated immune responses of meerkats. Results Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were evaluated for the detection of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and IFN-γ inducible protein 10 (IP-10) in meerkat plasma. An IP-10 ELISA was selected to measure the release of this cytokine in whole blood in response to Bovigam® PC-HP Stimulating Antigen, a commercial peptide pool of M. bovis antigens. Using this protocol, captive meerkats with no known M. suricattae exposure (n = 10) were tested and results were used to define a diagnostic cut off value (mean plus 2 standard deviations). This IP-10 release assay (IPRA) was then evaluated in free-living meerkats with known M. suricattae exposure, categorized as having either a low, moderate or high risk of infection with this pathogen. In each category, respectively, 24.7%, 27.3% and 82.4% of animals tested IPRA-positive. The odds of an animal testing positive was 14.0 times greater for animals with a high risk of M. suricattae infection compared to animals with a low risk. Conclusion These results support the use of this assay as a measure of M. suricattae exposure in meerkat populations. Ongoing longitudinal studies aim to evaluate the value of the IPRA as a diagnostic test of M. suricattae infection in individual animals. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0927-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Using geographical information system (GIS) analyses, we integrate archaeological and environmental data in order to examine the changing social landscape in a portion of the central Mesa Verde region between A.D. 1050 and 1290. We identify the largest and most persistent communities in this area and define their agricultural catchments. These catchments overlapped increasingly through time, creating a social landscape in which people competed increasingly for agricultural land. We quantify agricultural production in these community catchments by year and find that on average, productivity decreased through time. We use these results to evaluate how catchment overlap affected the productive potential of each community and whether the increased competition for land stimulated cooperation and/or conflict among communities.

The black mangrove, Avicennia germinans, occurs sympatric withSpartina alterniflora in coastal Louisiana. Zonation exists alongan elevational gradient with A. germinans dominant at higherelevation creekbanks and S. alterniflora at interior, lowerelevation sites with greater depth and duration of flooding.Establishment of A. germinans seedlings was examined in cagesthat excluded predators and limited horizontal, but not vertical,movement of propagules by the tides and showed that blackmangrove could readily establish in the Spartina zone. Survivalof A. germinans seedlings after one year in cages was notsignificantly different between the two zones, and seedlings weresignificantly taller in the Spartina zone. Thus, neitherinundation per se nor other abiotic factors alone could accountfor the absence of A. germinans in the interior marsh. Althoughpropagules were dispersed into both zones, a net removal ofuncaged propagules from plots in the Spartina zone (–1.3 ± 0.6m-2 d-1) compared to a net addition to plots in the Avicennia zone (+0.5 ± 0.4 m-2d-1) indicated that retention of propagulesdiffered between zones. Causes of mortality were decay (Spartina> Avicennia zone), desiccation (Avicennia > Spartina zone), andpredation (Spartina > Avicennia zone). Although few propaguleswere completely consumed by predators (snails and crabs), damageto the cotyledons promoted decay. The results suggest that tidalaction limits retention and settlement of A. germinans propagulesin the Spartina zone, and a combination of predator damage andfrequent flooding leads to rapid decay of propagules that strandthere.

Three vegetation zones were delineated in a mangal / salt marsh community at Bay Champagne, Louisiana — a zone dominated byAvicennia germinans adjacent to the bay, an inland zone dominated bySpartina alterniflora, and a transition zone between the two containing both species. Parallel transects that intersected each zone were established perpendicular to the shore of the bay and sampled to determine if these zones differed on the basis of soil texture, elevation, redox potential, and selected interstitial water variables. Redox potential and interstitial water sulfide, ammonium, P, Ca, Mg, K, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, pH, and salinity were measured 5 times during the year to account for seasonal variation. Factor analysis identified five factors, accounting for 80.6% of the variation in the data. These factors were interpreted as representing seawater, sulfide, nitrogen/phosphorus, Eh, and copper variables. Factor scores in theAvicennia zone were significantly different than in the other zones for the salinity and sulfide factors, with higher salinity scores and lower sulfide scores. Analysis of variance revealed highly significant zone differences for most individual variables. TheAvicennia zone was characterized by the highest relative elevation and soil bulk density. Higher concentrations of ions associated with sea water, such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium, occurred in theAvicennia zone, which also caused interstitial water salinity to be higher in that zone. The transition andSpartina zones were more biochemically reduced than theAvicennia zone, as shown by lower redox potential measurements, higher sulfide concentrations, and higher sulfide factor scores in the former. Iron and manganese were lower in the more reduced zones, probably due to precipitation with sulfide. The transition andSpartina zones only differed in interstitial water potassium and sulfide and relative elevation, with some additional seasonal differences in other variables. TheSpartina zone had a lower elevation and usually higher sulfide concentrations than the transition zone. We hypothesize that the relatively high sulfide and lower elevation of theSpartina zone may limit the establishment ofAvicennia propagules there.