A combination of ecological and biological methods in studying wildlife helped University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers track a parasite dangerous to humans. As USask spotlights World Health Day on April 7, we take a closer look at this One Health Signature Area of Research project.
Amid a growing need for wildlife health research and surveillance in Canada, the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) wants the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) community to know that relationship building is more important than ever.
An emerging parasite known as Echinococcus multilocularis has been increasingly appearing in coyotes in Western Canada as well as in new regions of North America in recent years.
Three veterinary graduates of the University of Saskatchewan (USask) never thought they would find themselves living “Down Under” and working in wildlife pathology.
A research team at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) is working to find a reliable method of sedating North America’s fastest land mammal: the pronghorn.
A relatively new field of scientific study called metabolomics is providing important information for Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) researchers who are studying the impact of avian influenza virus (AIV) and environmental stress on the metabolism of waterfowl.
Last summer, imagine my surprise as I peered into the brain of a harvested white-tailed deer from Saskatchewan and observed a little brown thread of a worm that wasn’t supposed to be there.
How can a bison cow have a calf sired by a bull from the opposite side of North America? The collection, disinfection and freezing of semen using novel technologies can make this former pipe dream a reality, and it may be our best chance of saving the North American bison species.
Did you know that honey bees and humans face similar challenges when it comes to diet and health? Just as people require proper nutrition to stay healthy, bees also need an ample supply of their primary food and protein source — flower-collected pollen.
Just like people, waterfowl can experience feelings of stress that affect their gut microbiome — the trillions of microorganisms living inside their digestive system.
When Cody Koloski graduated from high school in Rossburn, Man., he headed for university with dreams of becoming a doctor — buoyed by his teachers’ enthusiasm for biology, chemistry and physics.
A University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher is building a database to uncover the whereabouts of the secretive and elusive prairie cougar.
All of Karlynn Dzik’s childhood experiences — the books she read, the videos she watched, the camps she attended — revolved around her desire to study and interact with animals.
Researchers’ aim of developing the world’s first bison genome biobank at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) received a critical boost on July 14 with Genome Canada’s funding announcement of $5.1 million for the Bison Integrated Genomics (BIG) project.
Dr. David Waltner-Toews, a graduate of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), was appointed as an officer of the Order of Canada – one of the country’s highest civilian honours.
Ever wonder why a pig is willing to nurse tiger cubs? Or why a dog will take care of a baby leopard? What about a cat that fosters ducklings?
A new University of Saskatchewan (USask) research chair position at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will focus on the health of pollinators that play an integral role in global food production and agricultural sustainability.
University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers in diverse disciplines were recently awarded over $7 million in federal government grant funding. Faculty members at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will receive $682,500 in research funds as part of this announcement.
Shorebirds are among the world’s most impressive travellers. Year after year, they make round trips of 32,000 kilometres from the top of the world to the bottom — and back again.
University of Saskatchewan wildlife ecologist Dr. Philip McLoughlin’s (PhD) research team has been awarded $1.87 million by a federal granting agency for an interdisciplinary project to study complex environmental changes occurring in Western Canada’s Boreal Plains and help mitigate the consequences.
Nearly two years after academic, provincial and federal researchers pooled resources to build a wildlife surveillance program, there’s proof that SARS-CoV-2 virus is circulating among free-ranging, white-tailed deer in Saskatchewan.
The ancestors of many animal species alive today may have lived in a delta in what is now China, suggests new research published in Nature Communications by an international team including University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers.
Every time it rains, fish living downstream of storm drains are exposed to pollutants, including the tire-derived compound 6PPD-quinone, in the runoff. Recently, this substance has been linked to massive die-offs of coho salmon across the West Coast of the United States.
Dr. Eric Lamb (PhD) understands there are no easy answers when it comes to the delicate balance between ecology and the economy in a proudly agriculture-driven province.
A mysterious disease is creeping its way into Saskatchewan, and its diagnosis remains complicated and unstandardized. Lyme disease, a tick-borne bacterial infection, is spreading westwards and northwards into the province of Saskatchewan.
British Columbia is losing its bats. Half of the 16 bat species in the province are either vulnerable or threatened, and ecologists and farmers alike worry about how the loss of these voracious pest control experts will affect our natural and agricultural systems.
Dr. Frederick (Ted) Leighton, a professor emeritus and graduate of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), was appointed officer of the Order of Canada — one of the country’s highest civilian honours.
Chemicals widely used in everyday life end up in wastewater that flows to rivers and lakes, potentially causing serious impacts to aquatic life.
University of Saskatchewan (USask) PhD candidate Kayla Buhler has spent her academic career in the sky and on the ground of the Canadian Arctic, examining how infectious diseases are transmitted through the interactions of wildlife with their environment.
White nose syndrome (WNS) — a fatal fungal infection of bats — has been confirmed in four little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) found near Cranberry Portage, Man. This is the furthest northern and western occurrence of WNS in Canada to date.
Kayla Buhler, a PhD candidate at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM), has received a prominent award for her research in the Canadian North.
Dr. Gabrielle Achtymichuk of Outlook, Sask., has always wanted to be a veterinarian ever since she was a kid — but a taste of research during a summer job at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) made her question that lifelong goal.
Veterinarians at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will be able to better evaluate rehabilitating wild birds and prepare them for release using the college’s newly built flight pen.
While society is coping with the stress related to a pandemic, honey bees and other pollinators are going through another problem — the stress associated with habitat loss.
For two decades, veterinary scientist, Dr. Emily Jenkins has been studying parasites and vector-borne diseases that cause illness in animals and people — and much of that work has been done in Canada’s North.
New research published in Scientific Reports shows that herd immunity was instrumental in stopping avian cholera from infecting and destroying a population of Arctic-nesting sea ducks in Canada’s North.
As the world continues to search for answers to COVID-19, University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers are focused on tracking the virus in wildlife.
Fast like the wind, baby bison Skeeter happily runs to his mum across the pastures of USask's Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE).
Insects are a great resource in learning how climate change affects diseases that are transmitted in the Arctic, which is warming at two to three times faster than other parts of the world.
“Why do you ultrasound fish?” That question often came up while I conducted research at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) during the summer of 2019.
A University of Saskatchewan (USask) research team has uncovered how bats can carry the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus without getting sick — research that could shed light on how coronaviruses make the jump to humans and other animals.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers have mapped metals in bird feathers, a technique that could help make environmental monitoring less destructive.
Why is it that bats don’t get sick when infected with viruses that can be deadly in humans?
The wet sand squishes beneath my gumboots as I walk along a beach near Tofino, on the western edge of Vancouver Island, B.C. Last night’s storm has strewn bull kelp and broken shells across the beach. It has also landed a true ocean oddity: a mermaid’s purse.
SASKATOON – Today, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the University of Saskatchewan (USask) announced a partnership to create the Ducks Unlimited Canada Endowed Chair in Wetland and Waterfowl Conservation—the first of its kind in Canada.
Today, Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the University of Saskatchewan (USask) announced a partnership to create the Ducks Unlimited Canada Endowed Chair in Wetland and Waterfowl Conservation—the first of its kind in Canada.
After months of rehabilitation, a great horned owl named Newman is enjoying a second chance at life in the wild — thanks to the hard work of a dedicated team of clinicians, students and staff at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).
Stressed-out ducks have the potential to give University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers a glimpse of the destructive effects of climate change on wetlands — the primary habitat for ducks and other waterfowl.
From disease in honey bees to pain management in beef calves, the research topics on display at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine’s (WCVM) annual undergraduate research poster day spanned species big and small.
A federal science report describing field research in Canada’s Arctic features the work of veterinary parasitologist Dr. Emily Jenkins, a professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) and University of Saskatchewan (USask) researcher.
Dr. Maarten Voordouw and his wife Anne enjoy being outdoors, especially with their young daughters, Naia and Margot. But after any outing, particularly if the girls have been playing in the grass or leaves, the couple are diligent about checking for ticks.
It’s a life she hadn’t imagined when she was a young student.
I feel like a predator. Only my target isn’t a blood meal – it is something far more precious.
A Parks Canada scientist is conducting research on bovine tuberculosis in bison to improve diagnosis of the disease and to develop better vaccines. This research is conducted in collaboration with the University of Saskatchewan and the Canadian Bison Association.
The bigmouth buffalo fish, or Ictiobus cyprinellus, is one of 67 fish species found in Saskatchewan waters, but it is also one of the six fish species currently at risk of extirpation (gone from a once-populated area) in the province.
Wild pigs—a mix of wild boar and domestic swine—are spreading rapidly across Canada, threatening native species such as nesting birds, deer, agricultural crops, and farm livestock, research by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) shows.
Between June 29 and July 19, 1978, a group of seven monkeys at Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo mysteriously fell ill.
One WCVM-trained veterinarian is at the forefront of caring for caribou and other wildlife as the official wildlife veterinarian for British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests.
Fish warn each other about danger by releasing chemicals into the water as a signal, research by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has found.
In an unprecedented finding, University of Saskatchewan (USask) researchers have recorded all three species of North American bears occupying overlapping territory in Canada’s subarctic.
Pets of all shapes and sizes have always been part of Katie Radcliffe’s life, but the first-year veterinary student’s favourite animals aren’t the soft and cuddly kind.
A wild eastern box turtle at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, Md., is on the mend and on the move — thanks to some plastic Lego bricks and some clever thinking by Garrett Fraess, a veterinary student from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).
Even though it was closed decades ago, the Giant Mine on the outskirts of Yellowknife has left a long environmental legacy.
Whether you’re a tourist who is planning a cross-country camping trip or a trucker hauling freight from Toronto to Vancouver, you can help slow the spread of a devastating wildlife disease called white-nose syndrome (WNS) by checking to ensure that you’re not giving a bat a free ride.
In the past 40 years, research into wolverine parasites has been as elusive as the animals themselves. Fortunately, that situation is changing, and PhD candidate Rajnish Sharma is the latest researcher to turn his sights on parasites affecting these carnivorous mammals.
Habitat loss, changes in weather, food scarcity, predator-versus-prey situations – each day wild animals are faced with these potential stressors. But what’s the cost?
Like most veterinarians, I spent many hours embroiled in an assortment of volunteer work prior to acceptance into vet school. In particular, I enjoyed discovering the medicine and rehabilitation of birds of prey through the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre (OWL) in Delta, B.C.
Straddling the boundary between northern Alberta and the southernmost tip of the Northwest Territories lies Wood Buffalo National Park, the widest-reaching patch of federally-protected wilderness in all of Canada.
It's a rare person who looks upon research on rats – the unwelcome kind – as the study of urban wildlife.
A University of Saskatchewan (U of S) research team has found that the woodland caribou population in the Boreal Shield region of Saskatchewan has been slightly increasing over the past two years and currently exists at a high density for the species in Canada.
When a large bird fell from the sky in front of a woman walking in downtown Saskatoon, the quick thinking citizen brought it directly to the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).
While populations of moose have been declining in much of their North American range, research from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) shows how these icons of the northern boreal forest are finding success by moving south into farmers' fields.
The fate of the world's richest biodiversity of salamanders and newts is in the hands of pet owners across North America, said Natacha Hogan, an environmental toxicologist specializing in amphibians at the University of Saskatchewan.
Until recently, veterinarians removed tumours, installed prosthetic eyes and performed other painful medical procedures on beloved pets as well as on animals in zoos and aquariums without providing their patients with any painkilling drugs.
On a normal summer day at Buffalo Pound Lake, beachgoers bask in the sun to the soothing sound of waves lapping onto the beach – and the hum of mosquitoes. But for 11 straight days in June 2012, this southern Saskatchewan paradise was disrupted by waves of dead and dying yellow perch washing onto shore.
Dr. Brandy Kragness let go of the wild bird she had cared for all winter and watched "Bolt" swiftly launch himself into the wind, flying strong and sure across the stubble field.
Bird health and the conservation of declining bird species are unifying themes for a new avian research centre on campus.
It is high noon on the ice shelf off Ross Island — it is always high noon in February in Antarctica — and Dr. Rob McCorkell, Dr. Gregg Adams and Michelle Shero are clustered around the south end of a northbound Weddell seal, trying to determine if she is pregnant.
Phoenix the red panda recently visited the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) for a check-up and received a clean bill of health from wildlife veterinarians.
Noise from motorboat traffic makes some fish more than two and a half times more likely to be eaten by predators, according to an international team of researchers including biologists from the University of Saskatchewan (U of S).
The First International Symposium on Bison Health, to be held in Saskatoon from June 24-26, will offer attendees presentations from local, national and international bison experts as well as a tour of the University of Saskatchewan's Specialized Livestock Facility.
How do you take ultrasound images of a fish?
Most people living in developed countries like Canada don't think of tapeworms as a threat to human health, but a recent discovery in British Columbia may eventually change that perception.
The wolverine is an animal so elusive that even some wolverine biologists have never seen one alive in the wild.
When Dr. Frederick A. (Ted) Leighton stepped down from his role as executive director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) on July 1, he left behind a vital, successful organization that's the envy of other countries.
Endless skies, wild bison and real cowboys – all are a part of life in Grasslands National Park. My summer research has brought me to southwestern Saskatchewan, an area harbouring some of the only native prairie left in Canada — and potentially, plague.
The bison come charging into the building, and I quietly shut the hydraulic gate behind them. This is a favourite part of my day in my job as a summer research student at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM). The strength and power of these wild animals fill the entire room with energy.
Newly hatched baby turtles on Florida's coast have been known to rush away from the ocean, rather than toward it as they normally would do.
The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative's new director — Dr. Craig Stephen — is someone whose lifelong commitment to wildlife mirrors that of his new colleagues at the CWHC.
The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) has selected Dr. Craig Stephen, a wildlife health specialist and a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan (U of S), as its new executive director.
Rural residents who spot a low-flying helicopter south of Saskatoon, including areas near Dundurn, Outlook, Tuxford, Watrous and Chamberlain, need not be alarmed – it's just a University of Saskatchewan research team catching moose with a net gun.
When you meet Dr. Manuel Palomino of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM), it's hard to imagine the small, five-foot-three Peruvian PhD student in superhero spandex and flowing cape.
University of Saskatchewan biology student David Johns has spent two summers scouring southern Saskatchewan for northern pintail ducks, a species whose numbers have declined due to land use changes.
In May, I travelled north of the Arctic Circle and scoured the tundra for fox feces — part of my job as a research student with Dr. Emily Jenkins, an associate professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM).
Crouched in the dust beside a prairie dog burrow in southwestern Saskatchewan's Grasslands National Park, I'm trying to capture fleas that may carry the bacteria that causes plague — yes, the same disease that caused the devastating "Black Death" in medieval Europe.
Fish are probably not the first wild creatures that come to mind when you think of Saskatchewan wildlife — but the province actually has a diverse aquatic culture in its lakes, rivers and streams.
