ENWC201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Chronic Wasting Disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, Zebra Mussel

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Entomology and Wildlife Conservation
• Course: ENWC201
• Professor: Kyle Mc Carthy

Document Summary

Wildlife diseases are connected to: conservation of threatened and endangered species, recreational use of wildlife, public health/loss of life (pet and human, agriculture (livestock) Disease: a disturbance to the normal function or structure of an organism. Epizootic: a disease that appears at an unexpected rate, synonyms with epidemic in humans: ex. Infectious: viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites (internal and external), etc: pathogen: a disease-causing agent, ex. Chronic wasting disease (cwd) and mad cow disease caused by a mis-folded protein and holes in the brain. Non-infectious: toxins (manmade, plant, fungal, or bacterial), physiological, nutritional, Mercury poisoning: product of coal and other fossil fuel power generators, heavy metal toxin methyl mercury, also emitted when items with mercury are incinerated, bio-accumulates, bio-magnifies. Reservoir: any living or nonliving substance that may perpetuate a pathogen in nature. Reservoir host: a host that acts as a reservoir for the pathogen, but does not suffer the ill effects from the disease.