RELATED LAWS ON EXOTIC AND NATIVE WILD ANIMALS

This paper is submitted in an effort to acquaint the personnel of allied State agencies with related laws which control the public and private possession of live exotic and native wild animals. The need for this common knowledge of related laws by agencies with law enforcement responsibility is readily apparent when the annual number and related problems from imported or resident wild animals in California are examined. In addition to resident wild animal populations, millions of fish and thousands of mammals, birds, and reptiles enter California each year through the utilization of most methods of transportation. Most of these imported animals are exotic species from foreign lands which cannot be readily identified and pose various degrees of potential and actual threat to native wild life, agriculture, and public health if they are introduced into the wilds of this State. For the purpose of this report, a general picture of imported exotic animals is presented in an introduction, and specific animals with related laws are treated individu-ally under the headings of current laws and future regulations.

Monitoring of Transmission of Tuberculosis between Wild Boars and Cattle: Genotypical Analysis of Strains by Molecular Epidemiology Techniques

An epidemiological survey for the monitoring of bovine tuberculosis transmission was carried out in western Liguria, a region in northern Italy. Fifteen Mycobacterium bovis strains were isolated from 63 wild boar samples (62 from mandibular lymph nodes and 1 from a liver specimen). Sixteen mediastinal lymph nodes of 16 head of cattle were collected, and 15 Mycobacterium bovis strains were subsequently cultured. All M. bovisstrains isolated from cattle and wild boars were genotyped by spoligotyping and by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis with the IS6110 and IS1081 probes. All M. bovis strains showed the typical spoligotype characterized by the absence of the 39 to 43 spacers in comparison with the number in M. tuberculosis. A total of nine different clusters were identified by spoligotyping. The largest cluster included 9 strains isolated from wild boars and 11 strains isolated from cattle, thus confirming the possibility of transmission between the two animal species. Fingerprinting by RFLP analysis with the IS6110 probe showed an identical single-band pattern for 29 of 30 strains analyzed, and only 1 strain presented a five-band pattern. The use of IS1081 as a second probe was useful for differentiation of M. bovis from M. bovis BCG but not for differentiation among M. bovis strains, which presented the same undifferentiated genomic profile. In relation to the epidemiological investigation, we hypothesized that the feeding in pastures contaminated by cattle discharges could represent the most probable route of transmission of M. bovis between the two animal species. In conclusion, our results confirmed the higher discriminatory power of spoligotyping in relation to that of RFLP analysis for the differentiation of M. bovis genomic profiles. Our data showed the presence of a common M. bovis genotype in both cattle and wild boars, confirming the possible interspecies transmission of M. bovis.

Estimating the number of whales entering trade using DNA profiling and capture-recapture analysis of market products

Surveys of commercial markets combined with molecular taxonomy (i.e. molecular monitoring) provide a means to detect products from illegal, unregulated and/or unreported (IUU) exploitation, including the sale of fisheries bycatch and wild meat (bushmeat). Capture-recapture analyses of market products using DNA profiling have the potential to estimate the total number of individuals entering the market. However, these analyses are not directly analogous to those of living individuals because a ‘market individual’ does not die suddenly but, instead, remains available for a time in decreasing quantities, rather like the exponential decay of a radioactive isotope. Here we use mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and microsatellite genotypes to individually identify products from North Pacific minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata ssp.) purchased in 12 surveys of markets in the Republic of (South) Korea from 1999 to 2003. By applying a novel capture-recapture model with a decay rate parameter to the 205 unique DNA profiles found among 289 products, we estimated that the total number of whales entering trade across the five-year survey period was 827 (SE, 164; CV, 0.20) and that the average ‘half-life’ of products from an individual whale on the market was 1.82 months (SE, 0.24; CV, 0.13). Our estimate of whales in trade (reflecting the true numbers killed) was significantly greater than the officially reported bycatch of 458 whales for this period. This unregulated exploitation has serious implications for the survival of this genetically distinct coastal population. Although our capture-recapture model was developed for specific application to the Korean whale-meat markets, the exponential decay function could be modified to improve the estimates of trade in other wildmeat or fisheries markets or abundance of living populations by noninvasive genotyping.

Comparison of Endocrine Response to Stress Between Captive-Raised and Wild-Caught Bighorn Sheep

Stress hormones in Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis), produced in response to environmental changes, road development, or high population density, may impact their immune systems to a threshold level that predisposes them to periodic, large-scale mortality. We compared the stress response to a novel environmental situation and repeated handling between bighorn sheep born and raised in captivity (CR) and bighorn sheep born in the wild (WC) and brought into captivity. We measured plasma epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol, and fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM). Three weeks after each group’s arrival we used a one-time drop-net event to elicit an acute stress response, and we collected blood samples from each sheep over 35 minutes, as well as one fecal sample. We collected blood and fecal samples from both groups on 7 other occasions over the subsequent 6 months. We also collected fecal samples from the pen at approximately 24-hour intervals for 3 days following every handling event to monitor the stress response to handling. We found that CR sheep had a stronger autonomic nervous system response than WC sheep, as measured by epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, but we found a very similar hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) response, measured by cortisol levels, to the acute stress event of a drop-net restraint. We also found that once the WC sheep had acclimated, as indicated by the return to the initial baseline FGM levels within 12 weeks, the CR and WC groups’ HPA responses to sampling events were not significantly different from one another. Fecal samples can provide a noninvasive mechanism for managers to monitor baseline FGM for a given herd. Using long-term monitoring of FGM rather than values from a single point in time may allow managers to correlate these levels to outside influences on the herd and better understand the impacts of management changes, population density, or increased human developments on the health of the sheep population.