Wildlife Health Lab
The Wildlife Health Lab monitors wildlife diseases in Wyoming. Primary diseases monitored include chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids, brucellosis in elk and bison, and pneumonia in bighorn sheep.
Collaboration
While many of the tests we use for disease diagnostics are completed in our laboratory, other testing is done in collaboration with the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory. This collaboration allows us access to specialists in the fields of virology, toxicology, parasitology, serology, bacteriology and pathology which gives us far better diagnostic capability. The Wildlife Health Laboratory also collaborates with multiple University, State, and Federal agencies on various wildlife disease projects.
Annual diagnostic testing
Each year the laboratory conducts approximately 15,000 tests on over 7,500 samples; the majority of which are blood samples for brucellosis testing and tissue samples for chronic wasting disease testing.
If you submitted a sample for CWD testing, you can access test results through your sportsperson's account. Results are typically available within 3 weeks of sample submission.
Veterinary Services at Game and Fish
The Wildlife Health Lab is part of Wyoming Game and Fish Department's statewide Veterinary Services branch. The primary goal of the branch is to provide diagnostics, information, education, and research on wildlife disease and wildlife anesthesia to the Department and the public.
Also included in the Veterinary Services branch are the Tom Thorne and Beth Williams Wildlife Research Center at Sybille and the Department's Wildlife Veterinarian.
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Answer
Jennings-Gaines, J. E., Luukkonen, K. L., Robbins, K. M., Edwards, W. H., Vogt, N. A., Vogt, A. A., & Allen, S. E. (2022). Utilizing blood filter paper and ear punch samples for the detection of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 by RT-rtPCR. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 10406387221116157.
Jennings-Gaines, Jessica E., William H. Edwards, and Timothy J. Robinson. "Determining Antibody Retention in Hemolyzed, Bacterially Contaminated, and Nobuto Filter Paper-Derived Serum Utilizing Two Brucella abortus Fluorescence Polarization Assays." The Journal of Wildlife Diseases 57.2 (2021): 386-392.
Wood, Mary E., Philip Griebel, Matthew L. Huizenga, Samuel Lockwood, Cole Hansen, Andrew Potter, Neil Cashman, John W. Mapletoft, and Scott Napper. "Accelerated onset of chronic wasting disease in elk (Cervus canadensis) vaccinated with a PrPSc-specific vaccine and housed in a prion contaminated environment." Vaccine 36, no. 50 (2018): 7737-7743.
Lowrey, Blake, Carson J. Butler, William H. Edwards, Mary E. Wood, Sarah R. Dewey, Gary L. Fralick, Jessica Jennings-Gaines et al. "A survey of bacterial respiratory pathogens in native and introduced mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus)." Journal of wildlife diseases 54, no. 4 (2018): 852-858.
Butler, C. J., Edwards, W. H., Paterson, J. T., Proffitt, K. M., Jennings-Gaines, J. E., Killion, H. J., ... & McWhirter, D. E. (2018). Respiratory pathogens and their association with population performance in Montana and Wyoming bighorn sheep populations. PloS one, 13(11), e0207780.
Miller, M. M., Cornish, T. E., Creekmore, T. E., Fox, K., Laegreid, W., McKenna, J., ... & Woods, L. W. (2017). Whole-genome sequences of Odocoileus hemionus deer adenovirus isolates from deer, moose and elk are highly conserved and support a new species in the genus Atadenovirus. Journal of General Virology, 98(9), 2320-2328
Killion, H. J., Edwards, W., Jennings-Gaines, J., Wood, M., Fox, K., & Sondgeroth, K. (2018). Development and validation of a real-time PCR specific for the leukotoxin gene of Bibersteinia trehalosi. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 1040638717753497.
Grigg, J. L., Wolfe, L. L., Fox, K. A., Killion, H. J., Jennings-Gaines, J., Miller, M. W., & P. Dreher, B. (2017). Assessing Timing and Causes of Neonatal Lamb Losses in a Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis) Herd via Use of Vaginal Implant Transmitters. Journal of wildlife diseases, 53(3), 596-601.
Monello RJ, Galloway NL, Powers JG, Madsen-Bouterse SA, Edwards WH, Wood ME, O’Rourke KI, Wild MA. Pathogen-mediated selection in free-ranging elk populations infected by chronic wasting disease. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2017 Oct 30:201707807.
DeVivo MT, Edmunds DR, Kauffman MJ, Schumaker BA, Binfet J, Kreeger TJ, Richards BJ, Schätzl HM, Cornish TE. Endemic chronic wasting disease causes mule deer population decline in Wyoming. PloS one. 2017 Oct 19;12(10):e0186512.
Butler CJ, Edwards WH, Jennings-Gaines JE, Killion HJ, Wood ME, McWhirter DE, Paterson JT, Proffitt KM, Almberg ES, White PJ, Rotella JJ. Assessing respiratory pathogen communities in bighorn sheep populations: Sampling realities, challenges, and improvements. PloS one. 2017 Jul 14;12(7):e0180689.
Brennan A, Cross PC, Portacci K, Scurlock BM, Edwards WH. Shifting brucellosis risk in livestock coincides with spreading seroprevalence in elk. PloS one. 2017 Jun 13;12(6):e0178780.
Benavides JA, Caillaud D, Scurlock BM, Maichak EJ, Edwards WH, Cross PC. Estimating loss of Brucella abortus antibodies from age-specific serological data in elk. EcoHealth. 2017 May 15:1-0.
O'Brien MP, Beja-Pereira A, Anderson N, Ceballos RM, Edwards WH, Harris B, Wallen RL, Costa V, Luikart G. Brucellosis Transmission between Wildlife and Livestock in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Inferences from DNA Genotyping. Journal of wildlife diseases. 2017 Apr;53(2):339-43.
Wolfe LL, Wood ME, Nol P, McCollum MP, Fisher MC, Lance WR. The Efficacy of Nalbuphine, Medetomidine, and Azaperone in Immobilizing American Bison (Bison bison). Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 2017. Apr;53(2):304-310
Maichak EJ, Scurlock BM, Cross PC, Rogerson JD, Edwards WH, Wise B, Smith SG, Kreeger TJ. Assessment of a strain 19 brucellosis vaccination program in elk. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 2017 Mar 1;41(1):70-9.
Wood ME, Fox KA, Jennings-Gaines J, Killion HJ, Amundson S, Miller MW, Edwards WH. How Respiratory Pathogens Contribute to Lamb Mortality in a Poorly Performing Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis) Herd. Journal of Wildlife Diseases. 2017 Jan;53(1):126-30.
Jennings-Gaines J, Edwards WH, Wood MA, Fox KA, Wolfe LL, Miller MW, Killion HJ. An improved method for culturing Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae from field samples. In Biennial Symposium of the Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council 2016 (Vol. 20, pp. 83-88). Cody, Wyo, USA: Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council.
Walsh DP, Cassirer EF, Bonds MD, Brown DR, Edwards WH, Weiser GC, Drew ML, Briggs RE, Fox KA, Miller MW, Shanthalingam S. Concordance in diagnostic testing for respiratory pathogens of bighorn sheep. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 2016 Dec 1;40(4):634-42.
Edmunds DR, Kauffman MJ, Schumaker BA, Lindzey FG, Cook WE, Kreeger TJ, Grogan RG, Cornish TE. Chronic Wasting Disease Drives Population Decline of White-Tailed Deer. PLoS One. 2016 Aug 30;11(8):e0161127.
Kamath PL, Foster JT, Drees KP, Luikart G, Quance C, Anderson NJ, Clarke PR, Cole EK, Drew ML, Edwards WH, Rhyan JC. Genomics reveals historic and contemporary transmission dynamics of a bacterial disease among wildlife and livestock. Nature communications. 2016 May 11;7.
Clarke PR, Edwards WH, Hennager SG, Block JF, Yates AM, Ebel E, Knopp DJ, Fuentes-Sanchez A, Jennings-Gaines J, Kientz RL, Simunich M. Comparison of Buffered, Acidified Plate Antigen to Standard Serologic Tests for the Detection of Serum Antibodies to Brucella abortus in Elk (Cervus canadensis). Journal of wildlife diseases. 2015 Jul;51(3):764-8.Cross PC, Maichak EJ, Rogerson JD, Irvine KM, Jones JD, Heisey DM, Edwards WH, Scurlock BM. Estimating the phenology of elk brucellosis transmission with hierarchical models of cause‐specific and baseline hazards. The Journal of Wildlife Management. 2015 Jul 1;79(5):739-48.
Fox KA, Rouse NM, Huyvaert KP, Griffin KA, Killion HJ, Jennings-Gaines J, Edwards WH, Quackenbush SL, Miller MW. Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) sinus tumors are associated with coinfections by potentially pathogenic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract. Journal of wildlife diseases. 2015 Jan;51(1):19-27.
Laramie, WY 82070
(Housed inside the Wyoming State Veterinary Laboratory)
Sat: Closed
Sun: Closed