The moose (Alces alces) is a ruminant that harvests energy from fiber-rich lignocellulose material through carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) produced by its rumen microbes. We applied shotgun metagenomics to rumen contents from six moose to obtain insights into this microbiome. Following binning, 99 metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs) belonging to eleven prokaryotic phyla were reconstructed and characterized based on phylogeny and CAZyme profile. The taxonomy of these MAGs reflected the overall composition of the metagenome, with dominance of the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Unlike in other ruminants, Spirochaetes constituted a significant proportion of the community and our analyses indicate that the corresponding strains are primarily pectin digesters. Pectin-degrading genes were also common in MAGs of Ruminococcus, Fibrobacteres and Bacteroidetes, and were overall overrepresented in the moose microbiome compared to other ruminants. Phylogenomic analyses revealed several clades within the Bacteriodetes without previously characterized genomes. Several of these MAGs encoded a #

The deer ked [Lipoptena cervi (L. 1758) (Dipt., Hippoboscidae)] is a blood-sucking ectoparasite of cervids. The species has been resident in Sweden for more than two centuries, whereas in Finland ( approximately 50 years) and Norway ( approximately 30 years), it has established itself relatively recently. L. cervi may cause serious health problems in its natural hosts, act as a vector for zoonotic diseases, and pose a socioeconomic threat to forest-based activity. In this paper, we review the distribution and former expansion of the species in Fennoscandia. The current distribution of L. cervi appears bimodal, and the geographical range expansion of the species shows notable differences across Fennoscandia. The western population in Norway and Sweden has its northern edge of range at respective latitudes of 61 degrees N and 62 degrees N, whereas the eastern population in Finland reaches 65 degrees N. The future expansion of L. cervi is dependent on several interdependent extrinsic and intrinsic factors. International multidisciplinary collaboration is needed to achieve a synthesis on the factors affecting expansion rates and to understand the effects of L. cervi on wildlife, human health, and the rural societies of Fennoscandia.

Abstract. Studying multiple individuals from multiple populations would add knowledge about the proportion of different movement strategies (migratory vs. resident) and how space use patterns vary within and across populations. This allows for effective conservation or management of partially migratory animal populations by identifying the appropriate size of management units and temporal interventions. However, this knowledge is often lacking as only a few individuals from a single population are tracked in space and time. To understand the drivers of intraspecific variation in movement patterns across a broad scale, we analyzed the multiannual space use of 307 moose (Alces alces), containing 544 single-year trajectories, from 10 study areas that are spread over a 1500-km latitudinal gradient. Using a novel approach, we quantified within-and among-population variation in movement and space use patterns. We identified the movement strategy (migratory, sedentary, nomadic, or dispersal) of moose and computed annual and seasonal home ranges. Individuals demonstrated variable movement strategies from migration to yearround residence. Summer home ranges were larger in northern study areas, whereas no geographical trends were detected among populations in winter home ranges. Individual-level traits, such as sex and age, along with factors related to the landscape, such as land use and habitat, explained variation within populations, whereas climatic factors such as temperature and vegetative productivity explained variation among populations. Importantly, the variables that explained individual-level variation in space use within populations were different for all our populations. We demonstrate the intricate interplay between individual life history and landscape scale variables and how they may determine the observed movement patterns and influence the scale of management.

BackgroundHepatitis E virus (HEV) infects a range of species, including humans, pigs, wild boars and deer. Zoonotic transmission may contribute to the high HEV seroprevalence in the human population of many countries. A novel divergent HEV from moose (Alces alces) in Sweden was recently identified by partial genome sequencing. Since only one strain was found, its classification within the HEV family, prevalence in moose and zoonotic potential was unclear. We therefore investigated samples from 231 moose in seven Swedish counties for HEV, and sequenced a near complete moose HEV genome. Phylogenetic analysis to classify this virus within the family Hepeviridae and to explore potential host specific determinants was performed.Methods and FindingsThe HEV prevalence of moose was determined by PCR (marker for active infection) and serological assays (marker of past infection) of sera and 51 fecal samples from 231 Swedish moose. Markers of active and past infection were found in 67 (29%) animals, while 34 (15%) were positive for HEV RNA, 43 (19%) were seropositive for anti-HEV antibodies, and 10 (4%) had both markers. The number of young individuals positive for HEV RNA was larger than for older individuals, and the number of anti-HEV antibody positive individuals increased with age. The high throughput sequenced moose HEV genome was 35-60% identical to existing HEVs. Partial ORF1 sequences from 13 moose strains showed high similarity among them, forming a distinct monophyletic clade with a common ancestor to HEV genotype 1-6 group, which includes members known for zoonotic transmission.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates a high frequency of HEV in moose in Sweden, with markers of current and past infection demonstrated in 30% of the animals. Moose is thus an important animal reservoir of HEV. The phylogenetic relationship demonstrated that the moose HEV belonged to the genotype 1-6 group, which includes strains that also infect humans, and therefore may signify a potential for zoonotic transmission of this HEV.

ABSTRACT:Conservation and research of the elusive snow leopard (Panthera uncia) have been hampered by inadequate knowledge about its basic life history. Global positioning system (GPS) collars can provide useful information, but there has been limited information available on safe capture methods, drug doses, and efficacy for effective immobilization of free-ranging snow leopards. We describe a drug protocol using a combination of medetomidine and tiletaminezolazepam for the chemical immobilization of free-ranging snow leopards. We also describe physiologic responses to immobilization drugs, including rectal temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, and relative hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ) recorded every 10 min. Our study was carried out in the Tost Mountains adjacent to the Great Gobi Desert, in southern Mongolia, between August 2008 and April 2012. Eighteen snow leopards were captured or recaptured with foot-snares on 42 occasions and anesthetized for marking with GPS collars. The snow leopards received on average (6SD) 0.02060.04 mg/kg body mass medetomidine and 2.1760.45 mg/kg tiletamine-zolazepam. The duration of ensuing anesthesia was 69613 min, including an induction period of 10 (64) min. Anesthesia was reversed with 4 mg (0.1060.04 mg/ kg) atipamezole administered intramuscularly. The mean value for SpO 2 for the 37 captures where we could record physiologic values was 9164. The SpO 2 increased significantly during anesthesia (+0.0660.02%/min), whereas rectal temperature (average 38.160.7 C/min, change 20.0460.003 C/min), heart rate (average 9769 beats/min, change 20.2060.03 beats/min), and respiratory rate (average 2666 breaths/min, change 20.1160.03 breaths/min) decreased significantly. A dose of 80 mg tiletamine-zolazepam (2 mg/kg body weight) and 0.72 mg medetomidine (0.02 mg/kg body weight) safely immobilized all adult and subadult snow leopards (weight 25-45 kg) in our study. All measured physiologic values remained within clinically acceptable limits.

People provide wild ungulates with large quantities of supplementary feed to improve their health and survival and reduce forest damage. Whereas supplementary feeding can positively affect the winter survival of ungulates and short-term hunting success, some of the feeds provided may actually reduce ungulate health and increase forest damage. Here, we highlight how recent advances in ungulate nutritional ecology can help explain why supplementary feeding can lead to undesirable outcomes. Using Europe's largest cervid, the moose (Alces alces), as a model species, and Sweden, as the socio-ecological context, we explain the concept of nutritional balancing and its relevance to supplementary feeding. Nutritional balancing refers to how animals alter their food intake to achieve a specific nutritional target balance in their diet, by selecting balanced food items or by combining items with nutritional compositions that are complimentary. As the most common supplementary feeds used contain higher concentrations of non-structural carbohydrates than the ungulates' normal winter diet, the consumption of such feeds may cause animals to increase their intake of woody browse, and thereby exacerbate forest damage. We also explain how animal health may be negatively affected by large intakes of such feed if complementary browse items are not available. We therefore suggest that the use of inappropriate feed is an additional means by which supplementary feeding may result in negative outcomes for hunters, forest owners, and wild animals.

Diet quality is an important determinant of animal survival and reproduction, and can be described as the combination of different food items ingested, and their nutritional composition. For large herbivores, human landscape modifications to vegetation can limit such diet-mixing opportunities. Here we use southern Sweden's modified landscapes to assess winter diet mixtures (as an indicator of quality) and food availability as drivers of body mass (BM) variation in wild moose (Alces alces). We identify plant species found in the rumen of 323 moose harvested in Oct-Feb, and link variation in average calf BM among populations to diets and food availability. Our results show that variation in calf BM correlates with variation in diet composition, diversity, and food availability. A varied diet relatively rich in broadleaves was associated with higher calf BM than a less variable diet dominated by conifers. A diet high in shrubs and sugar/starch rich agricultural crops was associated with intermediate BM. The proportion of young production forest (0-15 yrs) in the landscape, an indicator of food availability, significantly accounted for variation in calf BM. Our findings emphasize the importance of not only diet composition and forage quantity, but also variability in the diets of large free-ranging herbivores. Eating is complicated. Animals have to trade off a food item's potential energetic and nutritional gains against the risks of acquisition, such as the increased vulnerability to predation, exposure to plant toxins, or conspecific antagonism 1. What an individual eats, and where and when it does so, will in turn affect its fitness 2,3 , as diet quality is an important determinant of reproduction and survival in animal populations 4. For cervids (members of the deer family Cervidae), diet has repeatedly been shown to influence physiological and reproductive fitness 5-7. The impact of diet on individual fitness can occur through changes in body mass (BM), as well as through maternal nutritional effects 8,9 that can have flow-on implications for several generations 10. Diet quality is primarily determined by the combination of different plant items ingested, and each item's nutritional composition 11. A high diversity of available food items should enable a balanced intake of nutrients and energy 11 , and the avoidance of high doses of each plant species' defensive chemicals 12. Globally, intensive land management practices are altering an increasing proportion of land area 13,14. This can cause food resources to become concentrated in space and time 15 , and constrain the ability of cervids to acquire a suitable diet. Even in sparsely inhabited northern Europe, human modification of the landscape has been extensive 16 , with some regions primarily defined by intensive forestry, agriculture, urban environments, and limited protected areas. Humans largely control both the cervids' food resources and mortality rates. In many regions, this has led to an increase in some cervid populations 17. Furthermore, in these env...

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