Summer Internship Week 5

Emma Jefferson
Jun 16, 2022
3 min read

June 13th, 2022

Centre Wildlife Care reopened to new intakes this week! This is both good and bad news, since we are able to help more animals, but we don't have as much time to clean and generally have to stay later. Sadly for me, I clocked out of work at 12:15 AM this morning. When lots of new animals come in, things get chaotic fast. Our babies in pre-release enclosures are growing up fast and having lots of fun in their new space. Some new things I've never seen before that we got this week were baby mourning doves and baby bats! All bats that come in to CWC are taken care of by one volunteer at their home. This is because bats can catch COVID from people, so we try to minimize the number of people that they are exposed to. This brings me to something I wanted to talk about this week: disease! I know that after COVID disease is a not fun topic, and trust me, I feel the same way. However, I think that these diseases are worth talking about in spite of that, because they limit which animals we can bring into the clinic. The diseases I am referring to are chronic wasting disease in deer and high pathogenic avian flu in birds.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease that infects white-tailed deer, elk, moose, and mule deer. Prions are mis-folded proteins that accumulate in the brain and cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases. The symptoms of CWD include extreme weight loss, lack of coordination, and no fear of people. There is no cure or treatment for CWD, but luckily for us, it can not spread to people. However, the CDC does not recommend that people eat deer meat that is known to have CWD. Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in at least 23 states in the U.S., including Pennsylvania. To control and monitor the spread of CWD, the PA Game Commission has established Disease Management Areas. In the Disease Management Areas, deer-related activities are regulated. It's a long list, so I'll put a link at the bottom of the post. Anyways, Centre Wildlife Care is not allowed to rehabilitate fawns from counties that are in Disease Management Areas. Locally, this includes parts of Centre and Huntingdon county. These regulations are in place to protect wildlife and to protect the people that care for them. The other disease I wanted to talk about is high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) or high path avian flu.

High path avian flu is an incredibly deadly strain of avian influenza that is found mostly in wild birds such as waterfowl, raptors, vultures, and crows. HPAI is not commonly found in songbirds. HPAI is incredibly deadly in domestic flocks, so the disease is monitored and managed by governmental agencies. HPAI can spread to humans in rare cases, but a case of HPAI infection in humans in the U.S. has never been reported. Symptoms of HPAI in birds include sudden death, lack of energy or appetite, swelling of head and neck, and twisted around neck, along with many other symptoms. Before bringing any of the birds I listed before to Centre Wildlife Care, we have them taken to a vet office to be tested for HPAI. Songbirds showing HPAI symptoms are also tested for avian flue before coming to Centre Wildlife Care. Birds that test negative are rehabilitated at the clinic. The reason for this caution around HPAI is that a case at Centre Wildlife Care would be devastating. This is because if a case of HPAI is detected at the clinic, we will be forced by regulation to close for one month and to euthanize all birds on the premises. Suffice to say, this would be terrible for all of our work at Centre Wildlife Care. So if you ever want to bring a bird to the clinic, please CALL AHEAD first so we can tell you where to take it! Thanks for reading, and I hope you found this disease information interesting at the very least. I'll provide links to some sources at the bottom of the post below the cute photos :)