| | Accession Number | 5001833 |
| | Title | Development of methods for the restoration ecology of cranes |
| | Project Description | Aviculturists improve poor fertility (common in captive cranes) through artificial insemination (AI). |
| | Patuxent also uses netted pens and behaviorally conditioned cranes to produce naturally fertile |
| | (copulating) sandhill and whooping crane pairs. Partuxent has five naturally fertile whooping crane |
| | pairs and eight more that should start production in the next five years. Natural fertility is not good |
| | in some naturally fertile pairs and artificial insemination is used to augment the production of fertile |
| | eggs.We need to manipulate genetics, behavior, and physiology, and to control disease to |
| | maintain the captive population and to restore crane populations in the wild. An understanding of |
| | the cranes circannual hormone rhythms as they relate to reproductive behavior, photoperiod, and |
| | stress will offer valuable information. Recent development of fecal steroid enzyme immunoassays |
| | (Lasley and Kirkpatrick 1991, Lee et al. 1995) allows noninvasive serial examinations of hormone |
| | cycles in groups of reproductively successful cranes. Patuxent collected fecal samples from |
| | captive Florida sandhill cranes and from whooping cranes on the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. |
| | Also, we collected fecal samples during the egg laying cycle to see if we can predict time of |
| | ovulation and oviposition. Because of possible food poisoning problems, we bioassay all crane |
| | feed before feeding it to the cranes (see ôcore operationsö Acc No:500xxxx). In cranes coccidia |
| | parasites cause disease both in the intestinal tract and in a disseminated visceral form (DVC). |
| | Granulomatous nodules form in many organs causing pneumonia, hepatitis, myocarditis, and |
| | splenitis, besides the enteritis seen in other species. Patuxent uses coccidiostatic drugs to |
| | control DVC (see ôDVC vaccineö Acc No: 500xxxx). In whooping cranes, Eastern Equine |
| | Encephalitis (EEE) causes disease and death in some cranes. We use a human vaccine to |
| | protect against EEE. Like EEE, a new virus ôWest Nile Virusö may threaten the crane flock (see |
| | ôWest Nile Virusö Acc No: 500xxxx). We continue with the help of cooperators, to evaluate and |
| | manipulate the genetic composition of captive and wild whooping crane flocks. We want to reduce |
| | inbreeding and increase vitality. These studies include estimators of critical genetic areas like |
| | allozymes and the Major Histocompatability loci, and nonsense DNA like minisatellite and |
| | microsatellite DNA (see ôAFLPö Acc No: 500xxxx). |
| | Keywords | coccidiosis, crane, eastern equine encephalitis, fecal steroids, grus americana, grus canadensis, |
| | incubation, major histocompatability compl, reproduction, |
| | Principal | George F Gee, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center: George_Gee@usgs.gov; |
| | Investigators |
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