As feral swine (Sus scrofa) populations expand their range and the opportunity for feral swine hunting increases, there is increased potential for disease transmission that may impact humans, domestic swine, and wildlife. From September 2007 to March 2010, in 13 North Carolina, USA, counties and at Howell Woods Environmental Learning Center, we conducted a serosurvey of feral swine for Brucella...

BACKGROUND Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been used as genetic marker for genome-wide association studies in many species. Gene-associated SNPs could offer sufficient coverage in trait related research and further more could themselves be causative SNPs for traits. Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is one of the most important aquaculture species in the world accounting for nearly 14% ...

The varieties of carp we mentioned before are all hybrids. The traits of the offspring of the hybrid carps will be segregated. So new hybrids should be made every year and at least two varieties of parental fish must be conserved in order to obtain the hybrid carps. This can be inconvenient in practice. Jian carp is the first variety of common carp that was produced by artificial breeding in Ch...

Pymatuning Lake, located on the Pennsylvania/Ohio border, is noted for the large numbers of bread-eating carp that frequent the Linesville Causeway "carp bowl" from May to November. Carp were trapped in 1952 and 1984 at the carp bowl, tagged, and relocated varying distances away from the bowl in Sanctuary, Middle, and Lower lakes. Carp traversed the return distances of up to 9 km in less than 4...

Tuberculosis (Tb) in goats has always been considered of minor importance in New Zealand, even though the disease has been seen sporadically in feral goats captured. Within the last few years the demand for feral does as embryotransfer recipients and the search for feral cashmere genes have resulted in the extensive capture and distribution of feral goats throughout New Zealand. Many of the cap...

Serologic tests currently available for brucellosis diagnosis detect antibodies to Brucella but do not distinguish between species of Brucella. Although Brucella suis is known to circulate within various feral swine (Sus scrofa) populations, our objective was to determine the primary species of Brucella circulating in feral swine populations in areas of the US with high brucellosis prevalence. ...

Inter-specific competition is considered one of the main selective pressures affecting species distribution and coexistence. Different species vary in the way they forage in order to minimize encounters with their competitors and with their predators. However, it is still poorly known whether and how native species change their foraging behavior in the presence of exotic species, particularly i...

Outdoor cats represent a global threat to terrestrial vertebrate conservation, but management has been rife with conflict due to differences in views of the problem and appropriate responses to it. To evaluate these differences we conducted a survey of opinions about outdoor cats and their management with two contrasting stakeholder groups, cat colony caretakers (CCCs) and bird conservation pro...

Hunter harvest data suggest that feral hog (Sus scrofa) populations in western Louisiana are increasing, and population control in this region is complicated by the mixing of feral and domestic free-ranged hogs. Aggressive management may be warranted as feral and domestic hogs appear to be having unexpected effects on their ecosystem. We present the results of 3 recent investigations of genetic...

Feral swine populations are expanding throughout the U.S., where they are causing increasing amounts of damage to agriculture, natural resources, and property and threaten human health and safety. Methods to control feral swine damage in the U.S. consist of integrated fencing, trapping, snaring, and shooting (including hunting with dogs) efforts. New methods that are being developed to control ...