Local Surveillance and Control of Raccoon Rabies Virus in Striped Skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in Southwestern New Brunswick, Canada.

Targeted surveillance for raccoon rabies virus was conducted between February and May 2017, near Waweig, New Brunswick, Canada, in response to detection of a rabid striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) on 8 February 2017. A total of six skunks, 11 raccoons (Procyon lotor), and two porcupines (Erethizon dorsatum) were live-trapped, euthanized, and tested for rabies virus antigens using the direct rapid immunohistochemical test. Of these, only two skunks tested positive for rabies. All three rabid skunks came from the same location, an abandoned barn used as a denning site. Four of five skunks removed from this barn were males. Feeding, aggression, extreme response to noise and light stimuli, and exposure to porcupine quills were observed in two rabid skunks. No additional cases of rabies in wildlife were detected in the area since 8 March 2017. A targeted surveillance approach that removed potentially infected wildlife followed by localized oral rabies vaccine distribution was implemented in this locality.

Reports of oligodendrogliomas in three white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

Central nervous system tumors are rarely reported in cervids. The current report describes gross and histopathologic oligodendrogliomas in 3 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and selected immunohistochemical properties of 2 deer. All deer were euthanized due to central nervous system signs. Grossly, masses were variably circumscribed, locally invasive in the brain, light grey, and soft, and ranged from 2 to 5 cm in diameter. Histologically, tumors were characteristic for oligodendroglioma. The tumors were composed primarily of oval to round cells with round normochromatic to hyperchromatic nuclei, a pale granular cytoplasm, and well-delineated cytoplasmic membrane, and variable amounts of mucinous material, hemorrhage, and dystrophic mineralization. Immunohistochemistry, performed on masses from 2 deer, had positive cytoplasmic staining for S100 and variable staining on glial fibrillary acidic protein (1 deer negative and the other with rare positivity in astrocytes within the mass). This manuscript includes a discussion on the significance of these findings relative to central nervous system tumors of cervids and oligodendrogliomas from other species.