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The CCWHC is a cooperative effort at all 5 Canadian Veterinary Colleges. Our purpose is to apply the veterinary medical sciences to wildlife conservation and management in Canada through the acquisition of knowledge of wildlife health and disease, via continuous disease surveillance in free-ranging populations. CCWHC coordinates Canada?s National Wildlife Health Surveillance Program and provides educational programs, information, and consultation to government agencies and the public. To visit our national website click here.
The CCWHC, Atlantic Region, serves the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. It’s based within the Atlantic Veterinary College, in PEI and headed by Dr Pierre-Yves Daoust.
Swabbing protocol to detect avian trichomoniasis / trichomonosis
For a description of how to swab birds specifically to detect infection with Trichomas gallinae, please click here.
First cases of white-nose syndrome confirmed in Nova Scotia
On March 23, 2011, a little brown bat found alive in a home in Nova Scotia (NS) was euthanized and submitted to the CCWHC Atlantic Region for necropsy. The bat did not have gross or microscopic skin lesions typical of bat white-nose syndrome. However, swabs taken from the bat’s muzzle and wing membranes were positive for the fungus Geomyces destructans, the alleged cause of bat white-nose syndrome. Based on these results, suspect bat white-nose syndrome was diagnosed - case definition requires skin lesions to be associated with the fungus to confirm a diagnosis of the disease.
More recently, on May 3, two other little brown bats were submitted to CCWHC Atlantic. One bat was found dead on April 22 in Scotch Village, Hants County, NS, and the other found alive and euthanized on May 2 in Martock, Hants County. Both bats were on the landscape in the vicinity of a known concentration of hibernacula. Each bat had a confirmed diagnosis of bat WNS based on gross and microscopic lesions and positive RT-PCR for Geomyces destructans. This is the first confirmed diagnosis of bat WNS for NS, it comes only weeks after the original suspect diagnosis of WNS from bats in the same geographical area. Bat WNS surveillance continues with primarily little brown bats being submitted from both New Brunswick and NS. We are awaiting PCR results from 4 bats done last week (May 9-13) and are expecting (an) additional submission(s) this week (May 16-20). Some of the bats are expected to be positive, permitting confirmatory diagnoses for other counties in our region.
For more information, or to report a sick or dead bat, please contact your Dept. of Natural Resources or CCWHC Atlantic (atlantic@ccwhc.ca or 902 628 4314).
by : Dr Scott McBurney
Fatal Fungal Disease of Bats Spreads to New Brunswick
New Brunswick?s index case of Bat White-nose Syndrome has been identified in its most important known bat overwintering cave. The problem was detected by Ms. Karen Vanderwolf, a UNB graduate student, and her co-supervisor, Dr. Donald McAlpine (New Brunswick Museum Research Curator of Zoology and Adjunct Professor, University of New Brunswick)….read more
Diseases of Harbour Porpoises Project
Heather Fenton, our new MVSc student at the CCWHC Atlantic Region, is working on a project to investigate diseases of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) stranded along the Canadian coasts. Much of Heather?s work will be based on previously accumulated data from many years of necropsies performed at the Atlantic regional centre of the CCWHC and at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Abbotsford, British Columbia. She also hopes to incorporate some data from the CCWHC in Quebec, but she is very interested in additional submissions, perhaps from researchers working on the species elsewhere in North America. Therefore, if you have any information on stranded marine mammals, please contact Heather (hfenton@upei.ca); any material that comes from other sources will be duly acknowledged.
What to do you if you find a stranded marine mammal:
Note the location and contact your regional officer of Fisheries and Oceans Canada or the Marine Animal Response Society at (866) 567 6277.
Amphibian Health Research – 2010
Over 300 frogs were caught, swabbed to test for Bd and sometimes bled for a ranavirus study. For a preliminary summary of the research conducted in the summer of 2010, click here.
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Amphibian Health Research – 2009
Survey results, click here
Leather Back Turtle
The skeleton of a Leather Back turtle that was submitted as a necropsy case to CCWHC Atlantic in 2008 is being articulated by Grant Curtis. Read more…
Minke Whale Necropsy on PEI
On June 16 a dead minke whale was found on Prince Edward Island. A team composed of members of CCWHC and the AVC performed the necropsy to determine the cause of its death.
Hooded seals on shores of Prince Edward Island
A mild 2009-10 winter resulted in the complete lack of ice in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, interfering with the reproduction of harp seals and hooded seals. Seals likely gave birth much farther north than usual, may have given birth on thin ice and been unable to complete their normal nursing period, or may have given birth on shore in the southern Gulf. Hooded seals, a species that is rarely seen in the vicinity of PEI, were sighted on several occasions on its shores. Two adults, a male and a female, were found dead in April and examined by Dr Pierre-Yves Daoust. Read more….
Summer research on trichomoniasis (trichomonosis) in wild finches.
This summer, 2010, Dr Scott McBurney will be working with Whitney Kelly-Clark, an MSc student, on various aspects of the disease that has been detected in purple and American goldfinches in the Maritime Provinces since 2007. The work will be funded by CCWHC and a grant from the Sir James Dunn Foundation for Animal Welfare.
Sick birds at your feeder? Click here….
Pilot Whales Stranding, Magdalen Islands, QC, Oct 12 2009
Members of the CCWHC headed out to the Magdalen Islands to examine a group of 8 pilot whales, Globicephala melas, that had stranded on Oct 12, 2009. The CCWHC team consisted of a collaborative effort between the Québec and Atlantic Regions. Dr Guylaine Séguin and Dr Sylvain Larrat (Québec), along with Dr María Forzán (Atlantic), conducted the necropsy of 3 of the whales, 2 were males and 1 was a pregnant female. The other 5 whales were inaccessible. No significant pathologic findings were present. This is common in cases of multiple whale strandings, which are more associated with strong winds and stormy conditions than with poor health of the individuals involved. The location and individual information of all 8 whales will be added to the Marine Mammal database of the CCWHC, which contains information from the Atlantic region dating back to 1992.
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