| Each
year, wildlife managers across the United States are confronted with sick
and dead animals, frequently on a large scale. Minimizing such wildlife
losses depends on effective technical support, knowledgeable guidance,
and timely intervention. The National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) mission
is to provide information, technical assistance, and research on national
and international wildlife health issues. To fulfill the NWHC mission,
the Center monitors disease and assesses the impact of disease on wildlife
populations; defines ecological relationships leading to the occurrence
of disease; transfers technology for disease prevention and control; and
provides guidance, training and on-site assistance for reducing wildlife
losses when outbreaks occur.
The NWHC is located
in Madison, Wisconsin. The modern buildings and laboratories are designed
exclusively for combatting wildlife diseases. Due to the mobility of wildlife
and the potential for spread of disease, timely and accurate determination
of causes of wildlife illness and death is a prerequisite to achieving
effective disease control and prevention. National wildlife refuge personnel,
law enforcement agents, state conservation agency biologists, university-affiliated
scientists and others send wildlife carcasses and tissue samples to the
NWHC for diagnostic examination. The Center has a staff of over seventy
scientists and support personnel who offer services and conduct activities
to prevent and control wildlife diseases. The Center had a major role
in conducting field studies and providing expert testimony that resulted
in the conversion to nontoxic shot for hunting waterfowl in the United
States.
Center field investigations
provide immediate technical assistance to field personnel who find sick
and dead wildlife. NWHC personnel provide instructions on collection,
preservation, and shipment of specimens for laboratory examination and
will travel to problem areas to conduct field investigations and assist
local personnel with disease control operations. They respond to catastrophic
events, such as major die-offs, that threaten the health of wildlife populations.
Assistance is provided for disease problems that involve migratory birds,
endangered species and other warm-blooded wildlife that live on Department
of Interior (DOI) lands throughout the United States.
Center staff also
provide expertise regarding animal welfare regulations and their application
to wildlife. Technical assistance regarding animal welfare matters is
often provided to wildlife biologists and others. Preparation of videotapes,
publications, consultations and training are activities commonly carried
out by the Center in the animal welfare arena. |
NWHC
Activities include:
- Studies of diseases
affecting endangered species.
- Development of
disease diagnosis and control techniques.
- Evaluation of the
frequency, geographic distribution, and species affected by specific
pathogens.
- Evaluation of the
impacts of various disease agents on wildlife population dynamics.
- Assessment of the
interactions between environmental contaminants and infectious agents.
- Laboratory diagnosis
of wildlife mortality.
- Environmental profiles
of wetlands and the eruption, perpetuation, and maintenance of avian
botulism and avian cholera.
- Investigations
of avian tuberculosis in whooping cranes.
- Ecology of inclusion
body disease of cranes.
- Technical assistance
on wildlife health issues through workshops and seminars both at the
Center and at other locations nationally and internationally.
- In-house training
for senior veterinary students, wildlife biologists, and foreign scientists
interested in wildlife diseases.
- International scientific
activities with Russian counterparts for the study of wildlife diseases
of mutual interest; with the Wildlife Institute of India in developing
faculty expertise in wildlife disease; and with an Egyptian veterinarian
who spent one and one half years at the Center training to assist development
of wildlife health capabilities in Egypt.
- Production of a
videotape on lead poisoning in migratory birds that is widely used by
the national and international conservation community.
- Technical consultations
with government scientists and officials in Australia, New Zealand,
Japan, Denmark, France, Russia, and England regarding lead poisoning
in wild birds.
- Evaluation of wildlife
disease risks associated with New Zealand's endangered species program.
- Production of a
book-length field guide on wildlife disease and videotapes on special
techniques underscores the Center's goal of relating technical information
and concepts about wildlife diseases in a practical and relevant format.
|
