Diseases and parasites

Abstract

Wildlife biologists have long pursued understanding the ecology of diseases and parasites impacting white-tailed deer (e.g., see Whitlock, 1939), an important eld of study because they can detrimentally affect deer populations, other wildlife, livestock, and humans (Davidson et al., 1981). Diseases and parasites of white-tailed deer, perhaps more than any other North American large mammal species, have received much attention in the literature and complete treatises have been devoted to the subject (e.g., see Davidson et al., 1981). In the last 20 years it has become necessary for wildlife biologists to incorporate disease concerns into the management of white-tailed deer (Figure 7.1). For example, at the federal level the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is working to manage white-tailed deer diseases, some with implications for livestock health, including bluetongue (BT), bovine tuberculosis, cattle fever ticks, chronic wasting disease (CWD), and Johne’s disease. Much of our knowledge stems from the exhaustive work with white-tailed deer diseases and parasites performed at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia over nearly six decades (e.g., see Hayes et al., 1958). Recent advances in our under standing of the ecology of white-tailed deer diseases and parasites have also been made by state and federal agencies, and university scientists.