Currently, there is lack of information regarding the abundance and movements of raccoon population living in Yosemite National Park. Recently, close human-raccoon interactions have been increasingly reported in Yosemite Valley, raising concerns about zoonotic disease transmission. Moreover, due to their diet habits, raccoons may pose a challenge to reintroduction programs of endangered species into the park.
This WP will describe spatial and temporal dynamics of fish transportation and characterize the contact network patterns among the fish holdings based on the transportations, characterize infection-inducing contact patterns, identify the highly connected sites, and elucidate implications of the contact pattern on controlling disease spread.
Mixed crop-livestock farms (i.e. bio-diversified farms) are farms where animals and crops are raised with the goal of utilizing the products of one for the growth of the other. Mixed produce growers in northern California have diversified their production system to include a rotation of livestock in order to manage plant biomass, add manure to the soil, and increase products produced on the farm.
Equine influenza virus (EIV) is a major and highly contagious respiratory virus responsible for outbreaks of equine influenza (EI) worldwide. Nowadays, only EIV of the Clade I and Clade II Florida sub lineage are circulating amongst equids. While the virus continuously evolves and alters its morphology to escape the immune system of the host, it is very important to determine how the structure of the proteins responsible for he induction of a solid immunity change over times.
Brucellosis is a serious infectious disease of cattle, caused by Brucella abortus, which can cause devastating economic losses to cattle industry. California has been classified a free of bovine brucellosis since 1997 and, according to a report from the USDA-APHIS 2017, all the United States are now free of brucellosis in cattle. However, brucellosis is still endemic in free ranging elk and bison populations in the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA), which includes parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
The recent cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commertial Turkey flock in Stanislaus country (H5N8, Jan 2015) and a commertial poultry flock (broiler chickens and ducks) in Kings county (H5N8, Feb 2015) highlights the urgent need to develop and implement solutions to protect California poultry operations (PO) against avian influenza (AI) outbreaks.
The goal of this interdisciplinary, multi-institution, research-extension project within the "Critical Agricultural Research and Extension (CARE)" priority is to develop an innovative early-warning system for better prevention and control of Avian Influenza (AI) outbreaks in US poultry industry.
