Assessing Fifty Years of General Health Surveillance of Roe Deer in Switzerland: A Retrospective Analysis of Necropsy Reports.

Pewsner, Mirjam; Origgi, Francesco; Frey, Joachim; Ryser, Marie Pierre (2017). Assessing Fifty Years of General Health Surveillance of Roe Deer in Switzerland: A Retrospective Analysis of Necropsy Reports. PLoS ONE, 12(1), e0170338. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0170338

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General wildlife health surveillance is a valuable source of information on the causes of mortality, disease susceptibility and pathology of the investigated hosts and it is considered to be an essential component of early warning systems. However, the representativeness of data from such surveillance programs is known to be limited by numerous biases. The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus capreolus) is the most abundant ungulate and a major game species all over Europe. Yet, internationally available literature on roe deer pathology is scarce. The aims of this study were (1) to provide an overview of the causes of mortality or morbidity observed in roe deer in Switzerland and to assess potential changes in the disease pattern over time; and (2) to evaluate the value and limitations of a long term dataset originating from general wildlife health surveillance. We compiled 1571 necropsy reports of free ranging roe deer examined at the Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health in Switzerland from 1958 to 2014. Descriptive data analysis was performed considering animal metadata, submitter, pathologist in charge, laboratory methods, morphological diagnoses and etiologies. Recurrent causes of mortality and disease pictures included pneumonia, diarrhea, meningoencephalitis, actinomycosis, blunt trauma, predation, neoplasms and anomalies. By contrast, other diagnoses such as fatal parasitic gastritis, suspected alimentary intoxication and reproductive disorders appeared only in earlier time periods. Diseases potentially relevant for other animals or humans such as caseous lymphadenitis (or pseudotuberculosis), salmonellosis, paratuberculosis and listeriosis were sporadically observed. The disease pattern in roe deer from Switzerland was largely in accordance with previous reports. The observed fluctuations were consistent with methodical and/or personnel changes and varying disease awareness. Nevertheless, despite such limitations, the compiled data provide a valuable baseline. To facilitate comparison among studies, we recommend systematically archiving all case documents and fixed tissues and to perform data analyses more regularly and in a harmonized way.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Veterinary Public Health / Herd Health Management
05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Host-Pathogen Interaction
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP)
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute of Veterinary Bacteriology
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology (DIP) > Institute for Fish and Wildlife Health (FIWI)

UniBE Contributor:

Pewsner, Mirjam Lea, Origgi, Francesco, Frey, Joachim, Ryser, Marie Pierre

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lucia Gugger-Raaflaub

Date Deposited:

08 May 2018 13:23

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:30

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0170338

PubMed ID:

28103325

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.112102

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/112102

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