Bullet fragments in rifle‐killed deer (Odocoileus spp.) carrion have been implicated as agents of lead intoxication and death in bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), California condors (Gymnogyps californianus), and other avian scavengers. Deer offal piles are present and available to scavengers in autumn, and the degree of exposure depends upon incidence, abundance, and distribution of fragments per offal pile and carcass lost to wounding. In radiographs of selected portions of the remains of 38 deer supplied by cooperating, licensed hunters in 2002–2004, we found metal fragments broadly distributed along wound channels. Ninety‐four percent of samples of deer killed with lead‐based bullets contained fragments, and 90% of 20 offal piles showed fragments: 5 with 0–9 fragments, 5 with 10–100, 5 with 100–199, and 5 showing >200 fragments. In contrast, we counted a total of only 6 fragments in 4 whole deer killed with copper expanding bullets. These findings suggest a high potential for scavenger exposure to lead.

Human consumers of wildlife killed with lead ammunition may be exposed to health risks associated with lead ingestion. This hypothesis is based on published studies showing elevated blood lead concentrations in subsistence hunter populations, retention of ammunition residues in the tissues of hunter-killed animals, and systemic, cognitive, and behavioral disorders associated with human lead body burdens once considered safe. Our objective was to determine the incidence and bioavailability of lead bullet fragments in hunter-killed venison, a widely-eaten food among hunters and their families. We radiographed 30 eviscerated carcasses of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) shot by hunters with standard lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets under normal hunting conditions. All carcasses showed metal fragments (geometric mean = 136 fragments, range = 15–409) and widespread fragment dispersion. We took each carcass to a separate meat processor and fluoroscopically scanned the resulting meat packages; fluoroscopy revealed metal fragments in the ground meat packages of 24 (80%) of the 30 deer; 32% of 234 ground meat packages contained at least one fragment. Fragments were identified as lead by ICP in 93% of 27 samples. Isotope ratios of lead in meat matched the ratios of bullets, and differed from background lead in bone. We fed fragment-containing venison to four pigs to test bioavailability; four controls received venison without fragments from the same deer. Mean blood lead concentrations in pigs peaked at 2.29 µg/dL (maximum 3.8 µg/dL) 2 days following ingestion of fragment-containing venison, significantly higher than the 0.63 µg/dL averaged by controls. We conclude that people risk exposure to bioavailable lead from bullet fragments when they eat venison from deer killed with standard lead-based rifle bullets and processed under normal procedures. At risk in the U.S. are some ten million hunters, their families, and low-income beneficiaries of venison donations.

Lead (Pb) exposure in wildlife is a widespread management and conservation concern. Quantitative determination of Pb concentrations in wildlife tissues is the foundation for estimating exposure and risk. Development of low-cost, portable instruments has improved access and cost-effectiveness of determining Pb concentrations in blood samples, while also facilitating the ability for wildlife researchers to conduct near real-time Pb testing. However, these instruments, which use anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV) methodology, may produce an analytical bias in wildlife-blood Pb concentrations. Additionally, their simplicity invites use without appropriate quality-assurance-quality-control measures. Together, these factors can reduce data quality and hamper the ability to evaluate it, raising concerns about use of these instruments to inform important conservation issues. We document the extent to which this bias is addressed in the wildlife toxicology literature, develop quantitative approaches for correcting the bias, and provide recommendations to ensure robust data quality when using these instruments. Of the 25 studies we reviewed that referenced ASV use for determining Pb exposure in wildlife, only 32% acknowledged the existence of bias from the instrument. Importantly, another 20% of the studies actually reported ASV and spectroscopic-based results together without acknowledging their lack of equivalence. Using a multispecies data set of avian blood Pb concentrations, we found that ASV-based estimates of paired blood Pb concentrations were 30-38% lower than those from standard spectrometric-based methods. We provide regression equations based on this analysis of 453 blood samples to allow users of ASV instruments to adjust Pb concentrations to spectrometricequivalent values, and propose a series of guidelines to follow when using these instruments to improve data validity. Published 2018. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.KEY WORDS anodic stripping voltammetry, blood lead, graphite-furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively-coupled mass spectrometry, LeadCare 1 , portable lead analyzer.

Lead based ammunition is a primary source of lead exposure, especially for scavenging wildlife. Lead poisoning remains the leading cause of diagnosed death for the critically endangered California condors, which are annually monitored via blood tests for lead exposure. The results of these tests are helpful in determining recent exposure in condors and in defining the potential for exposure to other species including humans. Since condors are victim to acute and chronic lead exposure, being able to measure both would lend valuable information on the rates of exposure and accumulation through time. A commercial portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device has been optimized to measure bone lead in vivo in humans, but this device could also be valuable for field measurements of bone lead in avian species. In this study, we performed measurements of bone Pb in excised, bare condor bones using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), a cadmium 109 (Cd-109) K-shell X-ray fluorescence (KXRF) system, and a portable XRF system. Both KXRF and portable XRF bone Pb measurement techniques demonstrated good correlations with ICP-MS results (r=0.93 and r=0.92 respectively), even with increasing skin thickness (r=0.86 between ICP-MS and portable XRF at 1.54mm of soft tissue). In conclusion, our results suggest that a portable XRF could be a useful option for measurement of bone Pb in avian species in the field.

The endangered California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is the largest New World Vulture in North America. Despite recovery program success in saving the species from extinction, condors remain compromised by lead poisoning and limited genetic diversity. The latter makes this species especially vulnerable to infectious diseases. Thus, taking advantage of the program of blood lead testing in Arizona, condor blood samples from 2008 to 2018 were screened for haemosporidian parasites using a nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol that targets the parasite mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Plasmodium homopolare (Family Plasmodiidae, Order Haemosporida, Phylum Apicomplexa), was detected in condors captured in 2014 and 2017. This is the first report of a haemosporidian species infecting California Condors, and the first evidence of P. homopolare circulating in the Condor population from Arizona. Although no evidence of pathogenicity of P. homopolare in Condors was found, this study showed that the California Condors from Arizona are exposed to haemosporidian parasites that likely are spilling over from other local bird species. Thus, active surveillance should be an essential part of conservation efforts to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases, an increasingly recognized cause of global wildlife extinctions worldwide, particularly in avian populations considered vulnerable or endangered.