MORTALITY PATTERNS IN NONDOMESTIC HOOFSTOCK (OVIS ORIENTALIS LARISTANICA, CAPRA AEGAGRUS, CAPRA IBEX NUBIANA) INDICATE SPE- CIES-SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES IN DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY IN SMALL RUMINANTS

Abstract

Summary A retrospective evaluation was performed regarding cause of death in 91 Laristan mouflons (Ovis orientalis laristanica), 32 wild goats (Capra aegagrus) and 31 Nubian ibex (Capra ibex nubiana) at Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation (AWWP) between 2001 and 2008. The Capra spp. (i.e. wild goat and Nubian ibex) were strongly affected by an outbreak of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia in April 2004, whereas the mouflon remained mainly unaffected. Of the mouflon, 12 % (eleven animals) died with icterus as main pathological finding, and only in mouflon tick infection was reported. In one case a Theileria sp. infection was confirmed, suggesting it to be the etiologic agent also in the other icteric animals. Although parasites, including coccidia, were identified in all species. Coccidia had a major involvement in cases of macroscopic gastrointestinal lesions only in mouflons, but not goat species. In mouflons only animals with a birth weight over 1.5 kg reached an age over 2.5 years. As the mouflon and goat species were held in immediate proximity, the reported disease patterns at AWWP indicate distinct differences in disease susceptibility between wild Capra and Ovis spp. In this context, the common zoo practice to present closely related taxa in close spatial vicinity, as the C. aegagrus and C. ibex in this case, will favour the spread of certain infectious diseases.