Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2007. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 7, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are considered to be among the world’s worst invasive species due to their successful invasion and ecological and economic impact to native and agricultural plants and animals around the world. Feral pigs are significant disturbance agents that destroy plant communities, change soil characteristics, alter nutrient cycling, and create open sites for colonization of both native and non-native plant species through their foraging behavior called rooting. In contrast to native animal disturbances, rooting is a striking feature in the landscape that varies in space, seasonal timing, frequency (number of times rooted), and intensity (depth of rooting). During this study, feral pigs rooted 7.7% of the search area, which increased to 12% when abandoned patches (baseline patches that were not rooted during this study) were included. Overall, feral pigs rooted and re-rooted habitats along roads and trails significantly more than wetlands. Rooting also varied temporally with the most rooting occurring during July-November, which also corresponds to the peak in rooting intensity. Implications to land managers include avoiding the installation of roads and trails near wet to mesic habitats or other habitats that contain species of concern in order to conserve habitat quality and recreational value. Despite less rooting activity, feral pigs still pose a significant threat to wetlands as evidenced by the large amount of abandoned patches documented. In order to conserve natural areas, effective management and development of efficient control methods is needed to keep feral pig populations in check. As a large opportunistic omnivore, feral pigs have the potential to be important vectors for endozoochorus seed dispersal of a variety of plant species. Feral pigs can travel long iv distances and have a gut retention time up to 49 hours, therefore seeds can be deposited throughout the landscape far from the parent plant. Over the course of this study, feral pigs dispersed 50 plant species from a wide range of ecological and morphological characteristics, though the majority were native, small seeded, wetland species. For most plant species, location of deposition matched their habitat preference and suggests a high probability of survival. Feral pigs disperse mainly wetland plant species, which has important implications for wetland conservation. However, feral pigs also deposited unwanted species into wetlands and predated the seeds of important wetland canopy tree species.

Thesis (MS)--University of Montana, 2009. / Contents viewed on November 25, 2009. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

Feral swine are a nuisance species across the United States that costs around $1.5 billion each year in agricultural, environmental, and personal property damages. In the last ten years the population of feral swine is estimated to have quadrupled and novel population control methods are needed. Furthermore, feral swine are known carriers of zoonotic diseases such as brucellosis, which threatens both livestock biosecurity and public health. Recombinant multimeric gonadotropin-releasing hormone (mGnRH) has been previously used as a subunit vaccine to induce immunocontraception in feral pigs. However, potent adjuvants and large amounts of purified antigen are needed to elicit a robust anti-GnRH immune response and current delivery methods are limited. Brucella suis strain VTRS2 can be used as a novel platform to deliver mGnRH without the use of antibiotic resistant markers. Strain VTRS2 was created by deletion of the LPS biosynthesis gene wboA as well as the leuB gene required for leucine biosynthesis inside the nutrient-depleted intracellular environment occupied by Brucella. Mutations in wboA are known to attenuate Brucella strains such as the vaccine strain B. abortus RB51, however strain RB51 is rifampin resistant and has poor efficacy in swine. Strain VTRS2 confers significant protection against B. suis challenge in mice and additionally shows evidence of protection in feral swine. Furthermore, the mGnRH antigen can be delivered using the pNS4 plasmid (which expresses leuB under its native promoter) thus maintaining the plasmid in strain VTRS2 under leucine-deficient conditions while expressing recombinant antigen in the host. The murine model was used to determine the clearance kinetics of strain VTRS2-mGnRH and to measure vaccine efficacy against challenge by virulent B. suis 1330. Subsequently the effects of the VTRS2-mGnRH vaccine on fertility were assessed in breeding trials in mice. Strains VTRS2 and VTRS2-mGnRH were found to be protective against virulent Brucella suis challenge. Strain VTRS2-mGnRH elicited an anti-mGnRH antibody response in vaccinated mice, though an effect on fertility was not observed. An improved vaccine against brucellosis in swine, which also confers immunocontraception without the introduction of antibiotic resistance, could become an important tool in the management of this nuisance invasive species. / Ph. D. / Feral swine (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) are a major invasive species in the United States. Their population is estimated to have quadrupled in the past ten years and their geographic range has expanded to include at least 39 states. In addition to causing over $1.5 billion annually in agricultural, environmental, and property damages, feral swine also carry several diseases of public health and agricultural significance including influenza, leptospirosis, and brucellosis. Among these diseases, brucellosis, caused by the bacterial organism <i>Brucella suis</i>, is of particular concern because of its ability to cause reproductive losses in domestic swine and cattle as well as a debilitating febrile illness in humans. The disease has been eradicated from domestic livestock in the United States, and reintroduction could have severe consequences for both animal agriculture and public health. With the continued expansion of the feral swine population, the potential for spillover of disease into domestic livestock and humans increases. Additional tools are therefore needed to aid in both population and disease control. Immunocontraceptive vaccines have previously been used to reduce population growth in wildlife, and have been proposed for use in feral swine. Immunocontraceptives work by introducing an immunogenic form of a reproductive hormone which then causes an autoimmune response against the natural form of the hormone produced by the animal. This work describes the development of the <i>B. suis</i> vaccine strain VTRS2-mGnRHb, which was created from a virulent strain of <i>B. suis</i> to make an attenuated live vaccine capable of delivering the immunocontraceptive antigen mGnRH. The goals of strain VTRS2 were to act as a vaccine which protect against virulent <i>B. suis</i> challenge and which confers an infertility effect in the mouse model. An improved vaccine against brucellosis in feral swine, which also confers an infertility effect, could become an important tool in the management of this nuisance invasive species.

Influenza A virus (IAV) is a zoonotic pathogen which consists of a large genetically and antigenically diverse viral population. Swine IAVs not only cause disease outbreaks among swine, but can also be transmitted to humans, causing sporadic infections and even pandemic outbreaks apart from human seasonal IAV. Antigenic variant identification is fundamental for an effective vaccination program. Red blood cell based immunological tests have been used to identify antigenic variants among circulating IAV strains. Because these assays require viral isolation, they are time consuming and labor intensive. Thus only limited numbers of virus isolates are subjected to antigenic characterization in influenza surveillance studies and much of this important information is lost. In this project, a novel polyclonal antibody based proximity ligation assays (polyPLA) was developed and validated to characterize IAV antigenic variants directly using clinical samples. The application of this method with clinical samples from influenza surveillance had aided in the understanding of the antigenic evolution of IAV in human and swine populations.