Serologic Survey of Alaska Wildlife for Microbial Pathogens

Zarnke, Randall

Under the study title 'Serologic Survey for Microbial Pathogens,' two major projects have been completed. Formal manuscripts have been submitted to the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. These two manuscripts constitute the progress report for this reporting period. 1. Tongue samples were collected from 148 wolf carcasses during 1993 and 1994 near Fairbanks, Alaska. A standard peptic digestion procedure was used to detect Trichinella spp. larvae. Larvae were found in 54 of 148 samples (36%). There was no significant difference in sex-specific prevalence (P=0.902). Prevalence was significantly related to age (P,0.0001). There was no relationship between the number of larvae per gram of host tissue and the age or sex of the host (P=0.629). Trichinella spp. infection may cause illness in individual wolves. However, there was no indication the parasite had any negative impact on the population. 2. Tongue samples were collected from 72 black bear skulls. The bears had been killed by hunters in Southeast Alaska during 1996. A standard peptic digestion procedure was used to detect Trichinella spp. larvae in tongue tissue. No larvae were found in any of the samples.