Publications by authors named "Jenny G Powers"

Wildlife professionals routinely use potent sedatives and anesthetics when chemically immobilizing wildlife and zoo species in remote environments. Accidental exposure to these prescription veterinary drugs is rare but could be rapidly fatal. Commonly used agents include opioids and α adrenoreceptor agonists.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Animal movements among habitat patches or populations are important for maintaining long-term genetic and demographic viability, but connectivity may also facilitate disease spread and persistence. Understanding factors that influence animal movements is critical to understanding potential transmission risk and persistence of communicable disease in spatially structured systems. We evaluated effects of sex, age and infection status at capture on intermountain movements and seasonal movement rates observed in desert bighorn sheep () using global positioning system collar data from 135 individuals (27 males, 108 females) in 14 populations between 2013 and 2018, following a pneumonia outbreak linked to the pathogen in the Mojave Desert, California, USA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Habitat fragmentation is an important driver of biodiversity loss and can be remediated through management actions aimed at maintenance of natural connectivity in metapopulations. Connectivity may protect populations from infectious diseases by preserving immunogenetic diversity and disease resistance. However, connectivity could exacerbate the risk of infectious disease spread across vulnerable populations.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Widely considered an anthropogenic phenomenon, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a naturally occurring mechanism that microorganisms use to gain competitive advantage. AMR represents a significant threat to public health and has generated criticism towards the overuse of antimicrobial drugs. Livestock have been proposed as important reservoirs for AMR accumulation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Wildlife and humans are increasingly competing for resources worldwide, and a diverse, innovative, and effective set of management tools is needed. Controlling abundance of wildlife species that are simultaneously protected, abundant, competitive for resources, and in conflict with some stakeholders but beloved by others, is a daunting challenge. Free-ranging horses (Equus caballus) present such a conundrum and managers struggle for effective tools for regulating their abundance.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pathogens can exert a large influence on the evolution of hosts via selection for alleles or genotypes that moderate pathogen virulence. Inconsistent interactions between parasites and the host genome, such as those resulting from genetic linkages and environmental stochasticity, have largely prevented observation of this process in wildlife species. We examined the prion protein gene () in North American elk () populations that have been infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious, fatal prion disease, and compared allele frequency to populations with no history of exposure to CWD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In a continuing effort to better understand the transmission and persistence of chronic wasting disease in wild populations of cervids, Colorado State University, Fort Collins houses two species of deer indoors to study the pathogenesis of chronic wasting disease. Here we report key aspects regarding the husbandry and medication of Reeves' muntjac and white-tailed deer in captivity for research purposes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, was first documented nearly 50 years ago in Colorado and Wyoming and has since been detected across North America and the Republic of Korea. The expansion of this disease makes the development of sensitive diagnostic assays and antemortem sampling techniques crucial for the mitigation of its spread; this is especially true in cases of relocation/reintroduction or prevalence studies of large or protected herds, where depopulation may be contraindicated. This study evaluated the sensitivity of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay of recto-anal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (RAMALT) biopsy specimens and nasal brushings collected antemortem.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The presence of disease-associated prions in tissues and bodily fluids of chronic wasting disease (CWD)-infected cervids has received much investigation, yet little is known about mother-to-offspring transmission of CWD. Our previous work demonstrated that mother-to-offspring transmission is efficient in an experimental setting. To address the question of relevance in a naturally exposed free-ranging population, we assessed maternal and fetal tissues derived from 19 elk dam-calf pairs collected from free-ranging Rocky Mountain elk from north-central Colorado, a known CWD endemic region.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The purpose of our study was to describe the progressive accumulation of the abnormal conformer of the prion protein (PrP(CWD)) and spongiform degeneration in a single section of brain stem in Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) with chronic wasting disease (CWD). A section of obex from 85 CWD-positive elk was scored using the presence and abundance of PrP(CWD) immunoreactivity and spongiform degeneration in 10 nuclear regions and the presence and abundance of PrP(CWD) in 10 axonal tracts, the subependymal area of the fourth ventricle, and the thin subpial astrocytic layer (glial limitans). Data was placed in a formula to generate an overall obex score.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Anthropogenic stress on natural systems, particularly the fragmentation of landscapes and the extirpation of predators from food webs, has intensified the need to regulate abundance of wildlife populations with management. Controlling population growth using fertility control has been considered for almost four decades, but nearly all research has focused on understanding effects of fertility control agents on individual animals. Questions about the efficacy of fertility control as a way to control populations remain largely unanswered.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A reliable antemortem test is needed to understand the ecology of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni). We measured the ability of antemortem biopsy samples from the rectal mucosa to detect the abnormal prion protein associated with CWD (PrP(CWD)), the relationship between test results from the obex and rectal biopsies at varying stages of CWD progression, and the prevalence of CWD in free-ranging elk from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. We sampled and placed radio collars on 136 adult female elk in the winter of 2007-08.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has been examined as a possible source for preclinical diagnosis of prion diseases in hamsters and sheep. The present report describes the detection of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the CSF of elk and evaluates its usefulness as an antemortem test for CWD. The CSF from 6 captive and 31 free-ranging adult elk was collected at necropsy and evaluated for the presence of the abnormal isoform of the prion protein that has been associated with CWD (PrP(CWD)) via protein misfolding cyclic amplification.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fertility control is a potential method for managing overabundant wildlife populations; however, current technology is limited by duration of treatment efficacy and unacceptable side effects. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of a single immunization with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) vaccine to suppress reproductive function in pregnant female elk and to evaluate potential behavioral and pathological side effects of treatment. Eighteen captive adult female elk were randomly allocated to one of two experimental groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Individuals of three species of cervids, with varying degrees of alopecia, were examined for ectoparasites: Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus) in Colorado and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in South Dakota. Hair follicle mites were recovered and identified as Demodex kutzeri, a species originally described from the European red deer (Cervus elaphus, from Austria) and the sika deer (Cervus nippon pseudaxis, captive in Germany). These findings expand the geographic range of D.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Though Freund's complete adjuvant effectively increases immune response to vaccines in various species, its potentially severe inflammatory effects have led many animal researchers to seek alternative immunological adjuvants. In a study of New Zealand white rabbits, the authors compared the immune and adverse effects of Freund's complete adjuvant with the effects of two formulations of AdjuVac, an immunological adjuvant previously developed by their group. All three adjuvants improved humoral immune response but also caused inflammation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Research investigated how prion diseases, like chronic wasting disease (CWD), can spread through body fluids like saliva, blood, urine, and feces of infected deer.
  • - Experiments with uninfected deer showed that prions were present in saliva (which could infect through oral contact) and blood (which could transmit via transfusions).
  • - Findings highlight easy transmission of CWD in deer and emphasize the need for caution around contact with potentially infected body fluids.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To monitor ovine herpesvirus type 2 (OvHV-2) infection status and the association between OvHV-2 infection and development of clinical signs of malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) in cattle.

Design: Longitudinal study.

Animals: 30 mature adult cows and 18 cattle submitted for necropsy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF