Distribution of trespass cannabis cultivation and its risk to sensitive forest predators in California and Southern Oregon.

Illegal cannabis cultivation on public lands has emerged as a major threat to wildlife in California and southern Oregon due to the rampant use of pesticides, habitat destruction, and water diversions associated with trespass grow sites. The spatial distribution of cultivation sites, and the factors influencing where they are placed, remain largely unknown due to covert siting practices and limited surveillance funding. We obtained cannabis grow-site locality data from law enforcement agencies and used them to model the potential distribution of cultivation sites in forested regions of California and southern Oregon using maximum entropy (MaxEnt) methods.

Grass is not always greener: rodenticide exposure of a threatened species near marijuana growing operations.

Objective: Marijuana (Cannabis spp.) growing operations (MGO) in California have increased substantially since the mid-1990s. One environmental side-effect of MGOs is the extensive use of anticoagulant rodenticides (AR) to prevent damage to marijuana plants caused by wild rodents.

High Time for Conservation: Adding the Environment to the Debate on Marijuana Liberalization.

The liberalization of marijuana policies, including the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana, is sweeping the United States and other countries. Marijuana cultivation can have significant negative collateral effects on the environment that are often unknown or overlooked. Focusing on the state of California, where by some estimates 60%-70% of the marijuana consumed in the United States is grown, we argue that (a) the environmental harm caused by marijuana cultivation merits a direct policy response, (b) current approaches to governing the environmental effects are inadequate, and

Patterns of Natural and Human-Caused Mortality Factors of a Rare Forest Carnivore, the Fisher (Pekania pennanti) in California.

Wildlife populations of conservation concern are limited in distribution, population size and persistence by various factors, including mortality. The fisher (Pekania pennanti), a North American mid-sized carnivore whose range in the western Pacific United States has retracted considerably in the past century, was proposed for threatened status protection in late 2014 under the United States Endangered Species Act by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in its West Coast Distinct Population Segment. We investigated mortality in 167 fishers from two genetically and geographically distinct sub-populations in California within this West Coast Distinct Population Segment using a combination of gross necropsy, histology, toxicology and molecular methods.

Anticoagulant rodenticides on our public and community lands: spatial distribution of exposure and poisoning of a rare forest carnivore.

Anticoagulant rodenticide (AR) poisoning has emerged as a significant concern for conservation and management of non-target wildlife. The purpose for these toxicants is to suppress pest populations in agricultural or urban settings. The potential of direct and indirect exposures and illicit use of ARs on public and community forest lands have recently raised concern for fishers (Martes pennanti), a candidate for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act in the Pacific states.

Effectiveness of rapid diagnostic tests to assess pathogens of fishers (Martes pennanti) and gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).

Wildlife managers often need to assess the current health status of wildlife communities before implementation of management actions involving surveillance, reintroductions, or translocations. We estimated the sensitivity and specificity of a commercially available domestic canine rapid diagnostic antigen test for canine parvovirus and a rapid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies toward Anaplasma phagocytophilum on populations of fishers (Martes pennanti) and sympatric gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). Eighty-two fecal samples from 66 fishers and 16 gray foxes were tested with both SNAP((R)) PARVO rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Seroprevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi among eleven potential reservoir species from six states across the southern United States.

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas' disease, is a substantial public health concern in Latin America. Although rare in humans and domestic animals in the United States, T. cruzi is commonly detected in some wildlife species, most commonly raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana).

Ecology of Anaplasma phagocytophilum infection in gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in northwestern California.

Although granulocytic anaplasmosis, caused by infection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, is an emerging human and domestic animal disease, the ecology and natural history of the parasite is not well understood. Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) are relatively common, occasionally peri-urban mesocarnivores whose geographic distribution overlaps the reported distribution of granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans and domestic animals in North America. We evaluated the potential of foxes as hosts and reservoirs of A.

Zoonotic Bartonella species in fleas collected on gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).

Bartonella spp. are fastidious, gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria and are usually vector-borne. However, the vector has not been definitively identified for many recently described species.

Infective endocarditis in a dog and the phylogenetic relationship of the associated "Bartonella rochalimae" strain with isolates from dogs, gray foxes, and a human.

The first case of canine endocarditis caused by "Bartonella rochalimae" is reported. By PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism, sequence, and phylogenetic analyses, Bartonella isolates from a dog with endocarditis, 22 gray foxes, and three dogs, described as B. clarridgeiae like, were confirmed to belong to the new species "B.

Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) as a potential reservoir of a Bartonella clarridgeiae-like bacterium and domestic dogs as part of a sentinel system for surveillance of zoonotic arthropod-borne pathogens in northern California.

Two species of Bartonella, a novel Bartonella clarridgeiae-like bacterium and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffii, were isolated from rural dogs and gray foxes in northern California.