From the Wilds of Kentucky, Chase Carey Reports

June 25, 2024

After my last dispatch, I spent dozens of hours in the field (literally) working mostly on our tick surveillance project, but also on our amphibian disease surveillance project. 

There were many 12+ hour days spent in the hot Kentucky sun fighting off a constant swarm of ticks, mosquitoes and cicadas. One day, I unfortunately got the field truck stuck in a muddy field and had to wait for a tractor to come along and pull me out! 

Another day, after a strong weekend storm, we came across a fallen tree on a back road leading to a couple of our sample sites. Armed with nothing but a dull machete/hand saw tool, I became drenched with sweat as I attempted to saw through a smaller limb that was sticking above the rest. Eventually, my coworker and I were able to break it off and slide the tree sideways just enough for us to get the truck over. Though it probably would have taken less time to walk to our sites, I’d like to count it as a win!

Last week, we were visiting our last sample sites for the season, which included one particularly buggy pond. The mosquitoes were so large and aggressive that I could feel each one as it landed on my exposed arms and neck. Covered in spider webs, sweat and blood-sucking fiends, I had for once just begun to pine for the cool A/C and sterile environment of the anatomy lab when I heard a rustle in the leaves. To my right, I saw a young buck approaching the pond we were sampling. He seemed undisturbed by our chitchat as he continued exploring the leaves and ambling toward us. He got to within about 20 yards of me before we made eye contact and he darted off into the woods. It was then that I realized why I do what I do. Despite the rugged conditions, there’s nothing like working in the great outdoors!

Since the conclusion of our field work, most of my time has been spent in the lab, organizing our samples and performing necropsies. Most of these have been on muskrats as part of a research project on muskrat population health, but I have also done a few wild turkeys and red foxes, looking for different diseases and parasites (pictures not included, for obvious reasons!).

Most recently, I assisted the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources with its annual goose banding at the Department HQ. We rounded up about 20 to 25 Canada geese to be banded for population-level research. I was able to get my hand on a few to assist with banding, which was conducted with proper federal permitting. They were a bit feisty, but I’d much rather handle them than a fractious cat! No geese were harmed in any way during the process, and they all were safely released back into a pond. This work wasn’t directly related to my internship, but it was another great opportunity to get out of the office and get my hands dirty.

JUNE 4, 2024

I’ve been working in Kentucky only about two weeks now, but it has been packed full of new and interesting experiences. 

This summer, I am working as a wildlife health intern for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, under one of only a few dozen state wildlife veterinarians in the United States. I have been able to jump in on a number of research projects exploring emerging diseases of wildlife in the state. 

The majority of my time has been spent on our tick surveillance and eDNA monitoring projects, which have been very interesting and challenging. For our tick surveys, we put out CO₂ traps that use dry ice to attract ticks and catch them on sticky tape. Additionally, we drag a large cloth on the ground vegetation across a transect to catch ticks sitting on the plants. The ticks are then collected in vials and sent to a wildlife lab in Georgia for identification and disease testing. We are looking to see which species of ticks and the diseases they carry are present in Kentucky across different habitats (such as forests or open fields). Needless to say, I have found too many ticks on me to count!

Our second project involves collecting water samples from ponds across the state and testing them for eDNA, or environmental DNA, of specific amphibian diseases. The project is part of an ongoing effort of the KDFWR Wildlife Health Program to monitor emerging amphibian diseases, such as Chytrid fungus (Bsal) and Ranavirus. We collect the water in small bottles and then filter them through a small paper filter that is able to collect the eDNA for testing. This process is super exciting to learn about and see in action!

I also have been able to perform a few necropsies on wildlife and deer to examine the cause of death and collect organ samples for disease testing and research purposes. While all of this may not seem like glamorous work, I see real purpose and excitement in it. I have loved seeing how the disease processes and veterinary concepts we have been learning at the CVM are being applied to real-world conservation issues!