The home range dynamics of eleven roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) females were studied from 1995 to 1999 in the Foreste Casentinesi National Park, northern Apennines, Tuscany, Italy. The study area is mountainous with almost complete forest cover (95%) and snow usually falls from late October to April. Data were collected with radio-tracking techniques: the annual and bimonthly home range, the o...

The analysis of the data shows that the growth of roe deer from the eastern part of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) is very similar to that of specimens from other areas in Poland. A comparison with excavated bone material revealed only slight and fluctuating differences. The roe deer from the areas to the west of Poland are larger and those from the areas to the east of the country are the largest.

The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition of roe deer meat considering the animals' sex and age and to estimate the content of amino acids in the meat from two selected groups of the animals, i.e. 2-3-year-old males and females. A further goal was to assess the biological value of proteins as compared to the FAO standard. The study has revealed that in proteins from the ro...

Faecal samples from 162 wild animals were collected from 32 distinct sites of Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie Lakeland (eastern Poland). The presence of Giardia duodenalis (Stiles, 1902) was assessed by a Direct Fluorescence Assay (DFA) and by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and sequencing of a fragment of the beta-giardin gene. DFA showed the presence of cysts of G. duodenalis in 12 of 162 faecal samples...

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 capreolu...

The current study provides the insight into the bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and methanogens presented in the rumen and cecum of the Chinese roe deer (Capreolus pygargus). The ruminal, ileal, cecal, and colonic contents, as well as feces, were obtained from each of the three, free-range, roe deer ingesting natural pasture after euthanasia. For the bacterial community, a total of...

Toxoplasmosis is characterized by a complex epidemiology. The risk of infection for humans depends on their contact with infective oocysts in a contaminated environment and on the amount of tissue cysts located within consumed meat. Unfortunately, the prevalence of tissue cysts is largely unknown for game species. Although herbivorous game species are a source of infection for humans, the level...

Meat is an important source of animal protein but, at the same time, it includes saturated fatty acids, which makes it a potential cause of different cardiovascular diseases and still little is known about influence of age and sex on these parameters in roe deer muscles. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age and sex on the CLA and other fatty acids content in the musculus lon...

Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an emerging tick-borne pathogen with both veterinary and human health implications. The role of wildlife hosts for this pathogen are not well defined, even thought roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) has been suggested to contribute to the occurrence of this tick-borne diseases in Europe. Therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the potential role of thi...