Wildlife Diseases: General Disease Precautions, zoonotics

Wildlife Diseases: General Disease Precautions, zoonotics

nuisance animal problems General Precautions

• Diseased wild animals often show changes in behavior. They sometimes appear docile or react unusually to humans. Rabid wild and domestic dogs can react aggressively. Use all available precautions with animals that appear sick, are dying or exhibiting unusual behavior. Note animals found outside their normal habitat or conditions as these are often the only sign of disease. For example, note when normally nocturnal animals are seen during the day or when domestic free-ranging pets behave unusually.

• Maintain a record (daily log) of all animal contact and disposition whether or not disease is indicated.

General Precautions for Diseased Animal Contact and High Risk Areas

General Precautions for Diseased Animal Contact

1. Wear protective clothing. Items like rubber or plastic gloves, boots or aprons can lessen the risk of exposure for diseases transmitted by blood, feces or saliva.
2. Clean animal holding and handling areas. Scrub tools, tables, reusable gloves and equipment with water and soap or detergent. Rinse the area with a disinfectant that contains bleach.
3. Don't eat or drink when handling high risk animals or materials. Wash hands thoroughly after handling.

4. Dispose of animals properly. Eliminate sources of disease by incineration or deep burial.

5. Notify your physician if you are in a high risk profession for wildlife disease. As a precaution, your doctor may recommend that a blood sample be drawn and frozen to provide baseline information. Information you provide will enable your doctor to be more alert to signs and symptoms of rarely occurring diseases.

6. Educate yourself. Know the clinical signs/symptoms and distributions of wildlife-transmitted diseases. Not all diseases of wildlife are transmissible to humans.

General Precautions for High Risk Areas

1 . Apply mosquito or tick repellents. Be aware that some repellents are harmful to the skin.

2. Avoid tick-infested areas or high activity periods of mosquitoes. Ticks are generally most numerous late spring to early summer. Mosquitoes are most active during summer, early evening hours.

3. Wear protective clothing and equipment. For the tick-bome Lyme disease, wear light-colored clothing and tape pants cuffs inside of socks or high boot tops when in high risk areas. Equipment guards (safety glasses, face shield, and masks) against air-borne transfer of microorganisms that can cause hantavirus and histoplasmosis. (Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates job-related activities regarding risk to wildlife-transmitted diseases and may require certain clothes or equipment.)

4. Recognize early symptoms. Alert your physician of your possible exposure. Many zoonoses are rare enough that medical professionals sometimes overlook them.
5. Reduce host populations. Become involved in community or area-wide efforts to control mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, rats or mice. Implement control methods on your property.
6. Vaccinations. Vaccinate domestic animals against wildlife-transmitted diseases like rabies and Lyme disease. Contact your physician for human vaccination recommendations.

Vaccinations

Rabies: available to high risk individuals. Should be discussed with your physician. Tetanus: maintain a current tetanus booster status

U of CT; Northeastern Research Center for Wildlife Diseases; December 1997 5

Diseases of Wild Animals that are Transmissable to Man

(ANTHROPO-ZOONOSES) IN NORTHEASTERN U.S.A.:

TRANSMISSION MODE

CONTACT TRANSMISSION DERMATOMYCOSES DERMATOPHILOSIS SCHISTOSOMIASIS TULAREMIA RABIES LYMPHOCYTIC CHORIOMENINGITIS CAT SCRATCH DISEASE LEPTOSPIROSIS SCABIES ANTHRAX ERYSIPELAS PASTERURELLOSIS STAPHYLOCOCCOSIS	ARTHROPOD TRANSMISSION MOSQUITO ENCEPHALITIS West Nile Encephalitis DIROFILARIASIS TICK LYME BORRELIOSIS (new test for lyme disease) Lyme Disease ROCKY MT.SPOT.FEVER BABESIOSIS (now found in Mass.) EHRLICHIOSIS TULAREMIA NEW MYSTERY TICK DISEASE FLEA VERSINIOSIS (Y. pestis) MURINE TYPHUS DIPYLIDIASIS LOUSE - WILD TYPHUS SYLVATIC EPIDEMIC TYPHUS
ALIMENTARY TRANSMISSION FECAL CONTAMINATION Bird Droppings Bayliscaris Procyonis (raccoon roundworm) SALMONELLOSIS GIARDIASIS CRYTOSPORIDIOSIS TOXOPLASMOSIS TOXOCARIASIS ECHINOCOCCOSIS HEPATIC-CAPILLARIASIS CAMPYLOBACTERIOSIS SHIGELLOSIS YERSINOSIS Hanta Virus	SAPROZOONOSES ERYSIPELASCRYPTOCOCCOSIS ANTHRAX CANDIDIASIS BOTULISMHISTOPLASMOSIS TETANUS MADUROMYCOSIS LISTERIOSIS ZYGOMYCOSIS SPOROTRICHOSIS Protothecosis A fungus that can infect humans. The question is can humans contract this disease from animals that are infected? ASPERGILLOSIS
RESPIRATORY TRANSMISSION CHLAMYDIOSIS ASPERGILLOSIS	Diseases unclear whether they are transmittable to Humans Chronic Wasting Disease

U of CT; Northeastern Research Center for Wildlife Diseases; December 1997

Information listed on this page is the property of Dr. Richard Frech and is presented here with his permission.

Diseases Transmittable from Animal to Animal

Name	Source	Target
Neospora caninum: causes abortions in cattle	Single cell parasite contained in dog feces.	Cattle that eat feed infected with dog feces. (Reflections, vol.9. No.1)

Pox: a disease characterized by brown crusty tumors that typicall