An Official Website of the Commonwealth of Kentucky
The long-term decline in muskrat populations is of concern to wildlife agencies across the U.S. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resource's participation in this multistate study examining pathogens and toxicants in muskrats will provide valuable new data and inform wildlife professionals as to whether there are pathogen and toxicant threats to muskrats that could impact their fecundity, immunity, or survival. Results of this study will guide future management efforts and conservation of muskrat populations. The project is funded through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agency's Multistate Conservation Grant Program.
Project PartnersThe project is a collaboration between several state fish and wildlife agencies, including Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, and the University of Georgia.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal illness affecting white-tailed deer and other cervids, was first identified in captive mule deer in Colorado in 1967 and has since spread across North America. Wildlife agencies are striving to curb its spread and prevent its introduction to new areas, but these efforts have been challenging. Effective disease surveillance is crucial for detecting new cases and monitoring disease prevalence, but determining the optimal focus and sampling intensity remains complex. The Surveillance Optimization Project for Chronic Wasting Disease (SOP4CWD) aims to tackle these issues by using mathematical modeling, data science, and machine learning techniques to develop quantitative tools that assist wildlife agencies in designing efficient and effective surveillance plans. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is a collaborating partner in this project.
Project Founder Cornell Wildlife Health Lab
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is conducting a tick surveillance project across five wildlife management areas (WMAs) in Kentucky to identify and screen ticks for known zoonotic pathogens. These areas include Clay WMA, Taylorsville WMA, Green River Lake WMA, Peabody WMA, and Big Rivers WMA. Results from the project will be summarized and shared with the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
Project PartnersSoutheastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
When capturing wild turkeys for a survival study, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is collecting biological samples from live birds to assess their health status across the state of Kentucky, as well as screen for exposure to several pathogens that may affect wild turkey populations. These pathogens include lymphproliferative disease virus (LPDV), West Nile virus, reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV), mycoplasma (M. gallisepticum and M. synoviae), toxoplasmosis, avian influenza, and assorted hemoparasites. The results will be summarized for all partners and guide future management of wild turkeys in Kentucky.
Project Partners
The project is part of a collaboration between Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, Tennessee Tech University, and the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study.
Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is collecting and filtering water samples from ponds and streams across Kentucky to extract environmental DNA (eDNA). The samples are then screened for pathogens known to impact amphibian populations, including ranavirus and chytrid fungus (B. dendrobatidis). This surveillance also includes screening for a newer chytrid fungus not yet found in North America (B. salamandrovorans) that could have profound detrimental impacts on herptofauna in the United States. The results will be used to guide future disease surveillance efforts and management of non-game species, especially Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN), in Kentucky. The project is funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's American Rescue Plan Act Zoonotic Disease Initiative grant program.
Project Partners University of Tennessee Amphibian Disease Lab
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals with wide-ranging applications in industrial and consumer products, as they are resistant to heat, water, staining, etc., making them incredibly resistant to degradation. These “forever chemicals" have been detected in the air, soil, and water, especially around industrial sites and waste disposal areas, and can even bioaccumulate in organisms. PFAS are known endocrine disruptors and can impact health in a number of ways, impacting immunity, hormones, and reproduction. Because of this Kentucky Division of Water began screening for PFAS is wastewater in 2019, drinking water in 2023, and even expanded to screening wild fish in partnership with Kentucky Fish and Wildlife in 2021. To further expand this partnership and increase our understanding of PFAS in other aquatic species, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is collecting both native and non-native species of freshwater mussels from nine waterways across Kentucky. These mussels will be screened for up to 27 PFAS analytes. Results from this project will be summarized and shared with Kentucky Division of Water as well as Kentucky Fish and Wildlife's Fisheries Division and the Kentucky Department of Public Health. The project is funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's American Rescue Plan Act Zoonotic Disease Initiative grant program.
Project Partners Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection's Division of Water
Trace minerals are nutrients that are required only in small amounts but have a disproportionally large impact on essential bodily functions, including immunity, reproduction, nutrition, growth, etc. Requirements are highly studied in livestock but still relatively unknown in wildlife. As a result, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife is conducting an analysis of trace mineral concentrations in liver samples collected from Kentucky elk harvested by hunters in addition to elk sampled during routine mortality investigations. Through this analysis, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife will 1) create liver trace mineral reference ranges for Kentucky's elk population, 2) compare trace mineral concentrations between “healthy" hunter-harvested and clinically “sick" elk samples obtained from hunters and mortality investigations, and 3) compare the liver trace mineral concentrations of hunter harvested elk in Kentucky to those of hunter-harvested elk in Pennsylvania to determine if the new reference range is representative of only Kentucky elk or eastern elk populations in general. The results will be summarized and shared with all partners, published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, and used to guide future elk management in Kentucky.
Project Partners The project is part of a collaboration between Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.
Ahmed M.S., Hanley B.J., Mitchell C.I., Abbott R.C., Hollingshead N.A., Booth J.G., Guinness J., Jennelle C.S., Hodel F.H., Gonzalez-Crespo C., Middaugh C.R., Ballard J.R., Clemons B., Killmaster C.H., Harms T.M., Caudell J.N., Benavidez Westrich K.M., McCallen E., Casey C., O’Brien L.M., Trudeau J.K., Stewart C., Carstensen M., McKinley W.T., Hynes K.P., Stevens A.E., Miller L.A., Cook M., Myers R.T., Shaw J., Tonkovich M.J., Kelly J.D., Grove D.M., Storm D.J., Schuler K.L.. 2024. Predicting chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer at the county scale using machine learning. Scientific Reports 14: 14373
Williams, K.E., Hooven, N.D., Hast, J.T., Casey, C.L., Nemeth, N.M., Weyna, A., Springer, M.T., Cox, J.J. 2023. Vertebral malformation in a neonatal elk born in southeastern Kentucky. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 59(3): 532-535.
Casey, C.L., Rathbun, S.L., Stallknecht, D. E., Ruder, M.G. 2021. Spatial analysis of the 2017 outbreak of hemorrhagic disease and physiographic region in the eastern United States. Viruses 13(4): 550.