The geographic and seasonal distributions of the pathobiocenoses formed by rabies virus, the biotic provinces of Texas, and skunks, foxes and bats were described using synoptic mapping and enumeration by calendar month. Autocorrelation functions with 95% confidence intervals were calculated for the skunk pathobiocenose for lag periods up to 36 mo in length. The geographic distributions were fundamentally different, but all overlapped. The skunk and fox pathobiocenoses were associated with provincial ecotones. The distribution of the bat pathobiocenose was urban. The nature of the autocorrelation functions for the skunk pathobiocenose indicated that this disease association may be spreading throughout the state from an epicenter in the Texan biotic province.

Sera from 57 wolves (Canis lupus) in three areas of Alaska were evaluated for evidence of previous exposure to infectious canine hepatitis virus (ICHV) and canine distemper virus (CDV). Fifty-four sera (94.7%) were positive for ICHV exposure and four (7%) were positive for CDV exposure. All four CDV-reacting wolves also had titres to ICHV. The relatively common occurrence of ICHV exposure may be due to the greater resistance of ICHV to chemical and physical agents and its transmissibility via the urine of infected animals. The ICHV titres observed could indicate enzootic pathogenic ICHV, or exposure to the mildly pathogenic vaccine strain of CAV-1 through contact with the urine of domestic dogs. If CAV-1 is the original source of exposure, the titres could represent an ICHV-protected wolf population.

Experimental infection with pseudorabies virus was carried out by oral exposure of four young wild swine held in contact with two unexposed controls. No disease was observed but virological procedures indicated that the virus was shed in saliva and, in one case, in the nasal discharge, with subsequent infection of the control animals. After slaughter the virus was reisolated from the tonsils but not from lungs and brain. Virus reisolation from the tonsils was obtained in two animals after the throat swabs became negative. Virus neutralizing antibodies were detected.

A total of 3,470 sera, collected between 1963 and 1980 from 45 different species of wildlife in nine African countries, was examined for virus neutralizing (VN) antibodies to bovid herpesvirus 2. Antibodies were demonstrated in 20 species including 15 Bovidae, two Suidae, hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) and a green monkey (Cercopithecus aethiops); 11 of these species had not been previously recorded as sero-positive. Although the significance of neutralizing antibodies in the absence of virus isolation remains in doubt, results suggest that infection is widespread in wildlife. The highest VN titres were recorded in waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus and K. defassa), reedbuck (Redunca arundinum) and buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Infection appears to be continuous in free-living populations of buffalo and antibodies are present in the majority of animals by the age of 2 yr.

An isolant of duck plague herpesvirus from the Lake Andes Refuge outbreak was seeded in raw and filter-decontaminated water from two locations on the refuge, held at 4 C, and assayed for infectivity intermittently over a period of 2 mo. From an initial level of about 10⁵ PFU per ml, infectivity in the filtered samples uniformly dropped to about 10⁴ PFU per ml. Infectivity in the raw samples declined much more rapidly; infectious virus remaining at the end of 2 mo (ca. 10¹ PFU per ml) was only about 0.01% of that originally seeded.

In vitro replication of the golden shiner virus (GSV) occurred at 20 C to 30 C in fathead minnow cells; GSV did not replicate at 15 C or 35 C. Optimal replication temperature was approximately 30 C, where the latent period was 8 hr and viral yield was 113 infectious units per cell. Maximum cytopathic effect coincided with maximum released viral titer. Suitable storage temperatures for GSV were −70 C and 4 C. Viral infectivity was rapidly lost at temperatures above 20 C and at normal freezer temperature (−15 C).

Tissues from healthy subadult and moribund newborn northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) on St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, and from healthy pups and yearlings on San Miguel Island, California, were sampled for bacteria and fungi. Corynebacterium spp. and Staphylococcus spp. were more frequently present in tissues from animals on St. Paul Island whereas Pseudomonas spp. were frequently isolated on San Miguel Island. Approximately half of the blood samples were positive for bacteria. Salmonella spp. were isolated from rectal swabs of animals only on San Miguel Island. Fungi were isolated from the hair and skin of subadult males.

The meningeal worm (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) was found in 75 of 190 (39%) white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) examined in Oklahoma from 1977-81. Infections were found in deer from southeastern mixed forest, oak-hickory forest, oak-bluestem parkland and oak-hickory parkland, and not in deer from western bluestem prairie, bluestem-grama prairie and grama-buffalo grass ecoregions. Factors which may influence the distribution of meningeal worm in Oklahoma include distribution and densities of suitable snail hosts and deer feeding habits.

Twenty-six of 97 (27%) scats from raccoons (Procyon lotor) in an urban area and 37 of 121 (31%) scats from raccoons collected in a rural area of Indiana during October and November of 1980 contained eggs of Baylisascaris procyonis, an ascarid of animal health significance. Raccoons that were livetrapped from the same areas had similar prevalences of B. procyonis eggs in their feces. Therefore, monitoring the prevalence of B. procyonis in raccoon populations by analyzing scats appeared to be feasible.

A disease with striking clinical and pathologic similarities to the spongiform encephalopathies is described in six Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) maintained in wildlife facilities in Colorado and Wyoming. Clinical signs included behavioral alterations and progressive weight loss over a period of weeks or months. Consistent microscopic lesions were limited to the central nervous system and characterized by widespread spongiform transformation of the neuropil, intracytoplasmic vacuoles in neuronal perikaryons, and astrocytic hypertrophy and hyperplasia.

The necropsy files of the National Zoological Park and Baltimore Zoological Society were reviewed for cases of distal extremity necrosis (DEN) in birds. Nineteen cases of DEN occurred following either trauma or frostbite. Six birds developed an apparently primary type of DEN in which no predisposing factors were obvious clinically. The toes and feet were most commonly involved, and in several cases the beak was also affected. Some pathologic evidence is provided that certain cardiovascular lesions may predispose birds to DEN by compromising circulation of the extremities.

Activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured in plasma, liver, and kidney, and gammaglutamyl transferase (GGT) was measured in liver and kidney of black ducks (Anas rubripes). Activities of ALT, AST, GGT, and ornithine carbamyl transferase (OCT) were assayed in plasma, liver, and kidney of game-farm mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Appreciable OCT and AST activity occurred in both liver and kidney. Activities of ALT, CPK, ALP and GGT were higher in kidney, while LDH was higher in liver. GGT was detected in plasma from one of four mallards.