Annual Performance Report, Statewide Wildlife Research: Diseases and Parasites

Annual report on specimens collected and analyzed in the period between July 1986 and June 1987 in BICY. Examinations were conducted on 107 specimens of diseased and normal mammals and birds. Four mortality episodes were investigated. Two involved brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), one involved raccoons (Procyon lotor), and one involved both raccoons and grey foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). In addition, a number of individual cases of diseased birds and mammals from scattered localities was studied. Work continued on a book on the parasites and diseases of wildlife in Florida. The third year of a longterm study of the health and reproductive status of white-tailed (Odocoileus virginianus) deer in the Big Cypress National Preserve and in the Fakahatchee Strand was completed. An ecological survey of the helminth parasites of river otters (canadensis) throughout the state of Florida was conducted and resulted in the identification of two trematodes, one cestode, six nematodes and one acanthocephalan.