Investigation of Potential Diseases Associated with Northern Territory Mammal Declines | Final Report

Investigation of potential diseases associated with Northern Territory mammal declines | Final report By Andrea Reiss, Bethany Jackson, Graeme Gillespie, Danielle Stokeld and Kris Warren © Charles Darwin University 2015 Investigation of potential diseases associated with Northern Territory mammal declines is published by Charles Darwin University and is for use under a Creative Commons attribution 4.0 Australia licence. For licence conditions see: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The citation for this publication is as follows: Reiss, A., Jackson, B., Gillespie, G., Stokeld, D., Warren, K. (2015). Investigation of potential diseases associated with Northern Territory mammal declines. Darwin: Charles Darwin University. For further information contact Andrea Reiss [email protected] ISBN 978-1-925167-32-0 Printed by Uniprint Charles Darwin University, Darwin Northern Territory, 0909, Australia. Acknowledgements Funding for this project was provided through the Northern Australia Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environment Research Program (NERP) and the Northern Territory (NT) Department of Land Resource Management (DLRM). We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we worked and the support of landholders and community groups who contributed to the outcomes of this research. We acknowledge the valuable assistance of staff at the Flora and Fauna Division, NT DLRM in undertaking this study. We would like to thank Stuart Young, Kym Brennan and all the field staff working in the Top End. Michael Lawrence-Taylor from the Northern Australia Hub collected still and video images of our work on Bathurst Island in September 2013. We acknowledge the valuable assistance from veterinary staff and students at Murdoch University, including Ann Glaskin, Lian Yeap, Bec Donaldson, Rebecca Vaughan-Higgins, Anna Le Souef, Amanda Duarte, Una Ryan and Peter Irwin. Timothy Portas, Mikaylie Wilson and Camilla Michie all provided valuable assistance during field trips. We acknowledge assistance from the staff at Berrimah Veterinary Laboratories. Suresh Benedict performed the bacteriology, Susan Walsh did the nucleic acid extractions for de novo molecular swabs, Lorna Melville undertook the arbovirus serology and Robyn Wilson assisted with sample handling. Cathy Shilton performed the haematology, differential counts and histopathology and provided much valuable advice to the project. Thanks to Teigan Cremora and Jonathan Webb from the University of Technology, Sydney, for allowing us to participate in their field operations and assisting us with our work. We thank local veterinarians Jodie Low Choy, Jemima Amery-Gale and Margaret-Mary McEwen for their assistance with anaesthesia and sampling. At Wildlife Health Australia (WHA) we thank Tiggy Grillo, Rupert Woods and Sam Gilchrist for their review of our work and for the sharing of data. We thank the whole WHA team for their generosity in supplying office space for AR to undertake project work during 2014 and 2015 and for their interest, support and advice. At the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health (ARWH) we thank both Karrie Rose and Jane Hall for sharing data and reviewing our work. We thank all others who assisted the laboratory aspects of this project: Peter Kirkland from Elizabeth MacArthur Agricultural Institute (EMAI) NSW; Jenny Hill and associates from VetPath, Perth; the staff at Gribbles Adelaide; Joanne Devlin, Jane Owens and others from the University of Melbourne; Scott Craig and associates from the Leptospirosis Reference Laboratory, Qld and Pat Statham and associates from DPIPWE Animal Health Laboratory, Tasmania. All necessary Animal Ethics Approvals, through Murdoch University (permit number RW2591/13) and Charles Darwin University-Northern Territory Animal Ethics Committees (permit numbers A11027 and A13026) were in place to enable the animal handling and sample collection required for this project. Permit for Access to Biological Resources under Part 8A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 (permit number RK846) was in place to collect samples within Kakadu National Park. Permission was obtained for Danielle Stokeld to undertake general anaesthesia of study animals, which allowed examination and sampling of animals at Kakadu National Park when no wildlife vet could be present. All necessary permits were acquired for staff to travel and work on restricted lands in the Northern Territory. Several sections of this report draw on the earlier report from Jackson et al. (2010) ‘Research on small mammal decline and disease: Rattus rattus as a potential disease vector. Final Report to Kakadu National Park Ref no: K2010/0030’. Protocols were developed with assistance from the Woylie Conservation Project Operations Handbook and NT DLRM Wildlife Disease Sampling Protocols. Photos in the report were taken by A Reiss, S Young, T Portas and M Lawrence-Taylor. Map courtesy of Aaron Gove. Contents Executive summary �� 1 1 Introduction �� 3 1�1 Declining small mammal populations in the Top End of the Northern Territory �� 3 1�2 The importance of disease in wildlife and declining populations �� 4 1�2�1 Emerging infectious diseases �� 6 1�2�2 Challenges in investigating disease in free-ranging wildlife populations �� 6 1�3 Understanding disease processes �� 8 1�4 General indicators of health and disease �� 8 1�4�1 Macroparasites �� 9 1�5 Disease in small mammal species in Australia (with a focus on the tropical north) �� 9 1�6 Aims of this project �� 10 2 Materials and methods �� 11 2�1 Selection of species and sites �� 11 2�2 Development of protocols �� 11 2�3 Review of information on disease in target species and in the Top End �� 11 2�4 Hazard identification and assessment �� 12 2�4�1 Hazard scoring and prioritisation �� 12 2�5 Field processes �� 13 2�5�1 Trapping �� 13 2�5�2 Anaesthesia �� 15 2�5�3 Morphometric and demographic measurements and health assessments � 16 2�5�4 Blood and other specimen sampling �� 18 2�5�5 Ectoparasites and skin disease investigation �� 20 2�5�6 Management of samples in the field �� 21 2�5�7 Post mortem sampling �� 21 2�6 Laboratory testing of samples �� 21 2�6�1 Pathogen testing �� 23 2�6�2 Haematological and biochemical testing �� 26 2�7 Data management and statistical analyses �� 27 2�7�1 Descriptive analyses �� 27 2�7�2 Univariate analyses �� 28 3 Results �� 29 3�1 Hazard identification and prioritisation �� 29 3�2 Wildlife Health Australia and Australian Registry of Wildlife Health data �� 32 3�3 Existing knowledge of disease in target taxa �� 32 3�3�1 Dasyurids and northern quolls �� 33 3�3�2 Bandicoots and northern brown bandicoots �� 34 3�3�3 Phalangeridae and brushtail possums �� 36 3�4 Significant diseases and their potential impact on small mammals in the opT End �� 39 3�4�1 Viruses �� 39 3�4�2 Bacteria ��

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