Abstract
White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus are the most popular big game animal in the United States. Recreational harvest of these animals is a critical tool in population management, as well as an important financial resource for state economies and wildlife agencies. Thus, herd health evaluations can provide information to wildlife managers tasked with developing sustainable harvest practices while monitoring for emergent problems. The purpose of our study was to document causes of illness and natural mortality in New York white-tailed deer submitted for post mortem evaluation. Animals were presented by members of the public and wildlife management personnel due to abnormal behavior or unexplained death. We describe demographic and seasonal associations among gross and histologic evaluation and diagnostic testing. Post mortem examinations were performed on 735 white-tailed deer submitted for necropsy in New York from January 2011 to November 2017. Causes of euthanasia or mortality were classified into nine categories. The most common findings were bacterial infections, trauma not evident at time of collection, and nutritional issues, primarily starvation. Using a multinomial logistic regression model, we looked for associations between the mortality categories and age, sex and season. Compared to the baseline of bacterial deaths, adults were less likely to have died from nutritional and parasitic causes, males were less likely to have died from other causes, and risk of death from nutritional reasons decreased from season to season, with lowest risk in winter. These methods can help wildlife biologists track changes in disease dynamics over time.
Highlights
BioOne Complete is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses
According to estimates by the New York State Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC), there are more than one million deer living in New York, and recreational deer hunting provides $1.5 billion in annual economic impact (Seggos et al 2020)
Beginning in 2011, DEC biologists and staff were trained through a series of bi-annual workshops run by DEC to respond to observations or reports from the public and law enforcement of wild white-tailed deer that appeared to be sick, were emaciated, behaving abnormally, or were found dead without obvious cause
Summary
BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus are the most popular big game animal in the United States Recreational harvest of these animals is a critical tool in population management, as well as an important financial resource for state economies and wildlife agencies. As such, monitoring and maintaining the health of the deer herd is an important part of managing this resource, and a comprehensive study of morbidity and mortality in the New York white-tailed deer population is helpful to support human, domestic animal and wildlife health.
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