Nutrition as an etiological factor causing diseases in endangered huemul deer.

Objectives: Distinct diseases prevent endangered huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) recovery. Fundamental etiological factors include nutriments, a mayor component of habitat quality. Undernutrition affects growth, skeletal development, osteopathology, reproduction and immunocompetence: this paper amplifies data corroborating micro-nutrient deficiencies among huemul.

Elusive cranial lesions severely afflicting young endangered Patagonian huemul deer.

Objectives: Most subpopulations of endangered huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) fail to recover, frequently due to osteopathology. Equivalent pathology was detected only postmortem in an additional deer 365 km further north, stressing the need to improve clinical evaluations of live huemul.

Results: Captured on a farm and attended by authorities in charge of huemul, the deer was considered apt for relocation and release.

Troubling disease syndrome in endangered live Patagonian huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) from the Protected Park Shoonem: unusually high prevalence of osteopathology.

Objective: The last 1500 endangered Patagonian huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) exist in > 100 groups which are not recovering. Prevalence of osteopathology in dead huemul was 57+% (Argentina), whereas similar cases in Chile were accompanied by selenium deficiency. The first clinical cases from live wild huemul confirm widespread osteopathology which explains short life spans, low recruitment, and thus absence of population recovery.

Osteopathology and selenium deficiency co-occurring in a population of endangered Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus).

Background: About 1,000 endangered Patagonian huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus) remain in Chile and 350-500 in Argentina. Most groups (>100) are not recovering, and prevalence of osteopathology in Argentina was at least 57%. Here I describe relevant cases of osteopathology from a Chilean population which, however, recently also provided data on trace mineral status, supporting the initial hypothesis that nutrition may be a primary etiologic factor.

Severe dental fluorosis in juvenile deer linked to a recent volcanic eruption in Patagonia.

The Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcanic eruption deposited large amounts of tephra (ashes) on about 36 million ha of Argentina in June of 2011. Tephra was considered chemically innoxious based on water leachates, surface water fluoride levels were determined to be safe, and livestock losses were attributable to inanition and excessive tooth wear. To evaluate effects on wild ungulates, we sampled wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) at 100 km from the volcano in September-November 2012.

Age-independent osteopathology in skeletons of a South American cervid, the Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus).

The huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), an endemic Patagonian deer, has been endangered for decades. Although conservation in Argentina has been directed at the 350-600 remaining huemul, the population has not recovered. In initial studies on the potential effects of diseases on huemul population dynamics, skeletal remains collected between 1993 and 2007 in the Andes (41-45 degrees S, 71.

Potential existence of a sylvatic cycle of Taenia ovis krabbei in Patagonia, Argentina.

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) were introduced in southern Latin America about a century ago and characteristics of the invasion raise concerns over their epidemiological role for various diseases. We report on the possible occurrence of Taenia ovis krabbei established in a sylvatic cycle in Patagonia. Hook characters, size, appearance, and location of a cysticercus from a wild red deer are consistent with Taenia ovis ovis or T.