Low Prevalence of Trichomonas gallinae in Urban and Migratory Cooper's Hawks in Northcentral North America

Abstract

Trichomoniasis is a digestive tract disease caused by ingestion of the protozoan Trichomonas gallinae. This disease can be a significant source of mortality. No deaths of nestlings could be attributed to trichomoniasis in Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter cooperii) breeding in urban and rural environs in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and British Columbia. We detected T. gallinae in four (5.2%) of 77 nestling Cooper's Hawks during 2006 and 2007 among 42 urban nests on new study areas in southeast Wisconsin and eastern North Dakota/western Minnesota. All four infected young fledged. We did not detect T. gallinae in 52 breeding adult Cooper's Hawks on two urban study sites, nor in 28 migrant hatching year (n = 24) and adult (n = 4) Cooper's Hawks at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, Duluth, Minnesota in 2006–2007. Overall, we detected T. gallinae in only 2.5% of 157 Cooper's Hawks in northcentral North America. These results suggest a low prevalence of T. gallinae in Cooper's Hawks in the northern part of this hawk's breeding range.