Category: Research Results

In recent weeks, thousands of sick, dead and dying common guillemots have washed up on the Wadden Islands and the Dutch mainland coastline. Birds that strand alive are transported to animal rehabilitation centres while dead birds are being collected in order to determine their cause of death.

In a duck decoy in the north of the province of North-Holland, a forester from Staatsbosbeheer reported mid-January 2019 a weakened mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) with puffed-up feathers, gasping for breath, and just died. In the week before he had also had found three dead mallards in the duck decoy. Two of these

In November DWHC reported that tularaemia was found in the province of Overijssel and in the province of Limburg. Also in other parts of the Netherlands hare mortality was reported. It was questioned if the tularaemia was also the cause of death in those parts. In most cases there seems to be a different cause of death.

Around the end of October and early part of November, dozens of dead starlings were found underneath the trees around the Huygenspark in The Hague for several days. The animal ambulance ‘The Hague’  and bird sanctuary ‘De Wulp’ collected around 300 dead starlings. A few of these were post-mortem examined at the DWHC1.

Research on tissue provides an answer on the mysterious breast lump In August 2018, a roe deer was shot because of a lump in the breast and sent to DWHC for examination. The roe deer was an adult female in poor condition. The emaciation was caused by pneumonia due to lung worms. Both Dictyocaulus eckerti and

In the summer of 2018 two hares were identified with an infection of the parasite Encephalitozoon sp. This parasite is commonly seen in (domestic) rabbits, but little is known about its appearance in hares.

For the third year in a row common blackbirds in the Netherlands are affected by usutu virus. Since the end of July 2018 there has been an increase in the number of reports of sick and deceased common blackbirds to the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre and the Dutch Center for Field Ornithology.

In 2017, the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (DWHC) and the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) renewed testing roe deer serum samples for antibodies against tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV). The objective of this study was to locate potential TBEV foci and identify signs of increased

In May 2018 a sick immature Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) was brought to birdhospital Naarden where it died. The fresh cadaver was submitted to the DWHC for post-mortem investigation. The manager suspected that the magpie had died due to the disease ‘pigeon canker’. Post-mortem investigation confirmed that the

Late February 2018 the Dutch Wildlife Health Center (DWHC) was contacted about a beaver (Castor fiber) that displayed very abnormal behavior before it was euthanized in the field. The beaver did not respond to people and appeared blind and deaf. The person who discovered the animal had given the beaver a little