NZDA H&W 198 WEB

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Animal health A case of scabby mouth in Himalayan tahr by Jim Peffers, HUNTS Co-ordinator Over Easter weekend, I ventured south to the Jollie River area with my sons Jimmy and Sam, and a good mate Ray and his son Vince. We had been told this valley offered a smorgasbord of animals – tahr, red and fallow deer – so we decided to check it out for ourselves. The weather was fine and clear with light winds and just crisp enough to make you feel alive, yet want to keep moving. So we got to the river and sat down to glass all likely faces. We saw no tahr despite five sets of eyes looking, so we pressed on upriver, stopping to glass periodically as we went. There was a red stag roaring in the pines just within the park boundary, but he wasn’t showing himself, the cunning brute. Some absolutely outstanding roars from us couldn’t bring him out. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something small moving along among the pines across the river. Chamois? Certainly small enough, but the wrong colour. Up came the Swarovski 10x30s: aha! A tahr. And it was limping; in fact it could hardly walk. I asked my son to confirm what it was, just in case I was seeing things. He had a look and also confirmed it was a small tahr, limping quite badly. This deserved a closer inspection, so we made our way down to the riverbed. One slight problem though: the recent rains had swollen the rivers and the Jollie was still running quite high. We tried to find a suitable firing point from our side, but unless one was standing, the river bed rose too sharply along the sight-line to enable a clean shot. Ray bravely volunteered to cross, being one of the tallest – I would have got wet up to my waist! I gave Ray my nibby (hill-stick) so he could practice the solo crossing method I taught him on his HUNTS course. Once safely across, he stalked to within 30 m of the animal and delivered a well-placed shot with his .270. He decided it was safer to drag it back across the river than for us to all cross over to his side. Legend. Now this is when the story takes an interesting turn. The animal was evidently not well. It stank to high heaven, and I don’t mean the usual rutting smell (this was April – a little too early for the rut anyway.) It had some kind of skin disease and the first case of “horn rot” I had seen on a tahr – the worst case I’d ever seen. The horns were more goat-like than tahrlike: narrow and sweeping outwards, not back, and there were bits missing. There was a spongy fungal growth around the horn bases, lips and on all four hooves. The general condition was stunted, underweight and unhealthy. I think we had done the right thing by putting the poor fella out of his misery. We also decided not to take any meat, just to be safe, but we did take photos. When we returned to Tekapo, I showed the photos to my mate Sam, who lives there and is a very experienced alpine hunter. He reckoned the lesions looked very similar to sheep scabies, which he had seen as a musterer. He called the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) pest and disease hotline (0800 80 99 66) and discussed it with them. MPI asked us to go back and get Having deformed horns with spongy, thickened skin lesions at the base and around the mouth, this animal was never going to make a trophy 46 Close up of a diseased hoof showing open lesions – no wonder he was walking with difficulty NZ Hunting & Wildlife 198 - Spring 2017
The pathologist at work: Jim used ear plugs in his nose and a surgical mask to help make the stench more bearable two biopsy samples each of nose, lung, hoof, kidney and liver tissue. This was getting more like CSI than NZDA! So the next day we went early, armed with rubber gloves, surgical masks, scalpel and labelled sample bottles (all provided by Sam), hoping the cold, still conditions would keep the smell down. I took the external samples first, which was fairly straightforward, but the next step wasn’t for the faint-hearted. Remember, the animal was diseased and had been lying dead in the open for two days. A pair of ear-plugs served as nose-plugs, and a surgical mask helped too. I gutted the animal and took the internal organ samples. The liver and kidney appeared healthy but the lungs had been destroyed by Ray’s bullet. The lower intestine and bowel was dry, transparent and definitely not right. Back at Tekapo we repackaged the samples – some “as-is” (i.e., dry) and others in formalin – then packed all of them into ice and sent them off to MPI (initially to Dunedin, then to the Wallaceville Animal Health Laboratory, Upper Hutt). Their initial testing confirmed orf virus (the sheep strain of parapoxvirus), which causes “scabby mouth” or contagious ecthyma (see sidebar). After I got home to the Hutt Valley, I dropped in to the Wallaceville lab to catch up on the case over a coffee with Tom Rawdon. He is part of a team who investigate suspected exotic, new or emerging animal diseases and pests in stock and wildlife. He said this was a case of interest as mouth lesions can also be a sign of certain exotic diseases such as foot-and-mouth. Also, it appeared to be the first case of scabby mouth in tahr officially reported since the 1960s. The Animal Surveillance and Investigation team can be contacted via their freephone number (0800 80 99 66) and if you see anything suspicious they would rather hear from you than not, to discuss any concerns and work up a plan of action. People dealing with animals during their daily work (farmers, vets, pest controllers) or recreation (hunters, anglers, trampers) are the eyes and ears of animal disease surveillance. This is extremely important to ensure animal health issues can be detected and acted on promptly. It also underpins NZ’s trade in animal commodities, by the transparent and timely reporting of our animal health status. The MPI team is always interested in hearing about any new or unusual animal health issues, especially if more than one animal is involved. So the roar of 2017 turned out to be one of the most interesting in years. It highlighted the fact that killing an animal is only one component of hunting. Keen observation skills and knowledge of animal health and habits are also important. Hunters are conservationists at heart, and it Extract from the MPI report: … Thickened skin lesions were present on the face, affecting especially the mouth and base of horns, and multiple sites in the lower limbs. The horn base had similar proliferative changes, while the horns were in very poor condition with pieces broken off or generally eroded, dull and flaking. Photographs were reviewed by the Incursion Investigator and it was determined that the presentation was not consistent with that of foot-and-mouth disease, but aligned with either a parapox or papillomatous condition. … Fresh and fixed skin and visceral tissue samples showed no significant lesions in the liver, kidney or lung. The face and lower limb lesions consisted of an excessively folded and attenuated epidermal layer which exhibited marked hyperkeratosis. In areas the dermis contained many lymphocytes and plasma cells, and in places there were large pustules composed of degenerate neutrophils. No viral inclusion bodies were seen. Findings were consistent with contagious pustular dermatitis (Orf, contagious ecthyma) caused by parapoxvirus. Molecular testing excluded the presence of exotic poxviruses (orthopox, capriprox and leporipox), and confirmed the presence of ovine parapox (orf virus). The tahr had been shot in an area next to farmland with sheep, indicating a potential pathway for an environmental source of parapox. No further cases were identified. Although outbreaks of parapoxvirus in young tahr have been documented in the Southern Alps, this was an isolated incident in an adult exhibiting stunted growth (given its estimated age from the horn length). In previous outbreaks adults were not affected, indicating a degree of age-acquired immunity. Possibly the individual reported here was more susceptible to severe or chronic infection, given its stunted growth. … The samples have proved very useful for further work, given the rarity of the case. The MPI laboratory team will carry out full genome sequencing of the parapoxvirus detected here. The work will also enable detailed comparisons of the virus with deer, sheep and chamois parapox viruses. is in our own best interests to assist government departments like DOC and MPI in order to manage the health of our game animals. We all commented that helping with this unusual case made us feel good, and it would not stop us tahr hunting again. Neither should it discourage you! NZ Hunting & Wildlife 198 - Spring 2017 47
Page 1 and 2: Hunting NEW ZEALAND SPRING ISSUE 19
Page 3 and 4: Joshua Keen, Tahr, 3rd, G Jamie Fai
Page 5 and 6: Contents News and features Reports
Page 7 and 8: For the past 10 years Natex has pur
Page 9 and 10: Kirstie Wilson and Sue van den Bers
Page 11 and 12: Speech by Hon Peter Dunne, MP for
Page 13 and 14: Tale material produced a number of
Page 15 and 16: Keith Milne, "Purple Flower", 1st,
Page 17 and 18: Mandatory consultation As a statuto
Page 19 and 20: Joshua Keen, "Frosty Morning", 2nd,
Page 21 and 22: TREVOR CHAPPELL TROPHY - Wild sheep
Page 23 and 24: Game management Sika poised for Her
Page 25 and 26: forests at higher altitude within t
Page 27 and 28: Four management units A mixture of
Page 29 and 30: POWER & PRECISION FOR A DEVASTATING
Page 31 and 32: A closer look at Pete’s trophy. T
Page 33 and 34: Jack and Alfie’s first tahr hunt
Page 35 and 36: KIDS' PAGE Stephanie Waghorn (14) s
Page 37 and 38: the things that don’t go as well
Page 39 and 40: Game animal management Wakatipu whi
Page 41 and 42: Action plan What actions could be i
Page 43 and 44: “A change of tactics was called f
Page 45 and 46: World Benchrest Championships prepa
Page 47: for the Chinese. It could be argued
Page 51 and 52: McCONACHIE TROPHY (chamois) & EGMON

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NZDA H&W 198 WEB