Surgical technique for tubal ligation in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

Surgical tubal ligation was used to sterilize urban free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) as a methodology of a larger study investigating the influences of intact, sterile females on population dynamics and behavior. Deer were either trapped in clover traps (n = 55) and induced with an i.m. injection of xylazine and tiletamine/zolazepam or induced by a similar protocol by dart (n = 12), then intubated and maintained on isoflurane in oxygen. Over 3 yr, individual female deer (n = 103) were captured in Highland Park, Illinois, with a subset of females sterilized using tubal ligation by ventral laparotomy (n = 63). Other sterilization procedures included tubal transection by ventral (n = 1) or right lateral (n = 2) laparoscopy and ovariohysterectomy by ventral laparotomy (n = 1). One mortality (1/ 67, 1.5%) of a doe with an advanced pregnancy was attributed to a lengthy right lateral laparoscopic surgery that was converted to a right lateral laparotomy. The initial surgical modality of laparoscopy was altered in favor of a ventral laparotomy for simplification of the project and improved surgical access in late-term gravid does. Laparotomy techniques included oviductal ligation and transection (n = 14), application of an oviductal mechanical clip (n = 9), ligation and partial salpingectomy (n = 40), and ovariohysterectomy (n = 1). As of 2 yr poststerilization, no surgical does were observed with fawns, indicating that these procedures provide sterilization with low mortality in urban white-tailed deer.

Combined infection by avian poxvirus and Collyriclum faba in an American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos).

An adult American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) from Virginia, USA, was diagnosed with combined infection of avian poxvirus and the skin fluke Collyriclum faba. The flukes and viral inclusions were combined in a large (4 x 4 cm) multilobulated proliferative mass on the ventrum just cranial to the cloaca. The flukes were identified using light microscopy of organisms obtained by antemortem wedge biopsy. Intraepithelial cytoplasmic inclusions consistent with poxvirus infection were seen on histopathologic examination of the mass.