Comparison of Ketamine-Xylazine, Butorphanol-Azaperone-Medetomidine, and Nalbuphine-Medetomidine-Azaperone for Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Immobilization.

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are frequently handled using chemical immobilization in North America for management and research. In a controlled environment, we compared three drug combinations: ketamine-xylazine (KX), butorphanol-azaperone-medetomidine (BAM), and nalbuphine-medetomidine-azaperone (NalMed-A) for raccoon immobilization. In crossover comparisons, raccoons received a mean of the following: 8.

Screening of Microbial Volatile Organic Compounds for Detection of Disease in Cattle: Development of Lab-scale Method.

The primary hurdle for diagnosis of some diseases is the long incubation required to culture and confirm the presence of bacteria. The concept of using microbial VOCs as "signature markers" could provide a faster and noninvasive diagnosis. Finding biomarkers is challenging due to the specificity required in complex matrices.

Research with Agricultural Animals and Wildlife.

In fiscal year 2016, agricultural animals such as swine, sheep, goats, and cattle represented 10% of the 820 812 animals used in USDA-regulated research. In addition to traditional agricultural animals, research studies using captive wildlife are becoming increasingly important as human and livestock populations encroach upon, and thus expand interactions with, wildlife populations on the landscape. Optimum healthcare of both livestock and captive wildlife in a research setting requires proper husbandry, management, and veterinary care.

Use of faecal volatile organic compound analysis for ante-mortem discrimination between CWD-positive, -negative exposed, and -known negative white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a naturally occurring infectious, fatal, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids. Currently, disease confirmation relies on post-mortem detection of infectious prions in the medial retropharyngeal lymph nodes or obex in the brain via immunohistochemistry (IHC). Detection of CWD in living animals using this method is impractical, and IHC and other experimental assays are not reliable in detecting low concentrations of prion present in biofluids or faeces.

Use of fecal volatile organic compound analysis to discriminate between non-vaccinated and BCG-Vaccinated cattle prior to and after Mycobacterium bovis challenge.

Bovine tuberculosis is a zoonotic disease of global public health concern. Development of diagnostic tools to improve test accuracy and efficiency in domestic livestock and enable surveillance of wildlife reservoirs would improve disease management and eradication efforts. Use of volatile organic compound analysis in breath and fecal samples is being developed and optimized as a means to detect disease in humans and animals.

Fecal Volatile Organic Ccompound Profiles from White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as Indicators of Mycobacterium bovis Exposure or Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) Vaccination.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) serve as a reservoir for bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, and can be a source of infection in cattle. Vaccination with M. bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) is being considered for management of bovine tuberculosis in deer.

A pilot study exploring the use of breath analysis to differentiate healthy cattle from cattle experimentally infected with Mycobacterium bovis.

Bovine tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium bovis, is a zoonotic disease of international public health importance. Ante-mortem surveillance is essential for control; however, current surveillance tests are hampered by limitations affecting ease of use or quality of results. There is an emerging interest in human and veterinary medicine in diagnosing disease via identification of volatile organic compounds produced by pathogens and host-pathogen interactions.

Detection of volatile organic compounds in Brucella abortus-seropositive bison.

Brucellosis is of great public health and economic importance worldwide. Detection of brucellosis currently relies on serologic testing of an antibody response to Brucella infection, which suffers from cross-sensitivities to other antibody responses. Here we present a new method for identifying Brucella exposure that is based on profiling volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath.

Ecology and geography of human monkeypox case occurrences across Africa.

As ecologic niche modeling (ENM) evolves as a tool in spatial epidemiology and public health, selection of the most appropriate and informative environmental data sets becomes increasingly important. Here, we build on a previous ENM analysis of the potential distribution of human monkeypox in Africa by refining georeferencing criteria and using more-diverse environmental data to identify environmental parameters contributing to monkeypox distributional ecology. Significant environmental variables include annual precipitation, several temperature-related variables, primary productivity, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and pH.