Prokaryotes (kingdom Monera)

While most people do not realize it is so, our lives are intimately tied with that of bacteria, whether the connotations are positive or negative. As introduced organisms many bacteria have had negative impacts on wildlife and humans, especially with disease-containing pathogens. Bacteria that cause diseases in humans are widely studied; those causing widespread impact among the wildlife receive less coverage. However, epidemic-causing bacteria can lead to huge economic losses in ways as portrayed by the example below. eg: Pasteurella multocida This bacterial species is now found all over the world and is the causative organism of a disease that has affected many domestic and wild animals throughout its range in the form of outbreaks. An array of diseases caused by this pathogen includes a common poultry epidemic known as fowl cholera or avian cholera, is reputed to kill the infected animal within a day of the first contact.

(Pasteurella multocida) Pasteurella multocida inhabit the upper respiratory tract of many large vertebrates, notably that of poultry, cattle, swine, even domestic cats and dogs. Rodents can also act as vectors and as Rats and Mice have successfully invaded a new wide range over much of the world, the Avian Cholera bacteria is also spread to where suitable hosts reside. Strains within this species group have caused outbreaks of avian cholera in chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks; other respiratory diseases and haemorrhagic septicemia in ruminants, which include cattle and sheep, atrophic rhinitis in pigs, septicemia in rodents and lagomorphs, and even rare infections in humans, are also attributable to this bacterium. Intensive animal farming practices that constrict the space available to individual livestock animals have resulted in high population densities that are auspicious for the transmission of the bacterium among the herds. The bacterium is adept at modifying their characteristics according to the abundant host present around the locality, with a high mutation rate. A number of different lineages have been identified that are specifically suited to life in different hosts. Though not especially motile and dies under sunlight exposure, P. multocida can thrive in various estuarine

and riparian environments, living in the respiratory systems and digestive tracts of many animals, mainly avian hosts.

(A victim of Pasteurella multocida)

The ecological impact of this bacterium can be serious in places where farms have allowed the bacterial population to proliferate, affecting wild birds such as wild waterfowl and birds of prey that feed on waterfowl corpses. Infected birds show acutely manifesting symptoms as convulsive fits, disorientation, panting, and muscle stiffness; chronic signs of infection include lethargy and shivering, with mucous discharges from the respiratory tract accumulating around the nostrils and beak. Egested materials are pasty and yellow, containing the bacterium, which can be spread further, and sometimes with bloodstains from intestinal ulceration; this is followed by gradual loss of weight, fever, diarrhoea, and inflammated joints. Transmission is quick from bird carcasses into the surrounds, and an outbreak can be initiated very easily; in the extreme, in places where wetlands occur with large congregations of waterfowl and waders, avian cholera caused by the bacterium can kill thousands of birds at a time. Epidemics have been reported from the wetlands sites, consequently, near farms in the Mid-west and the Southern states. Released bacteria enter wild birds, some of which are resistant to the bacteria and simply acts as a vector, such as gulls. Some susceptible individuals contain the bacterium but show no symptoms of infection.

No cure has been found for the diseases caused by Pasteurella multocida, and most control methods tend to focus on the preventive side, and measures implemented target at minimizing any chance of dispersal. Infected carcasses are removed to protect the predatory birds and mammals that are principally scavengers. Pools contaminated are drained and flushed or sterilized when possible. Bacterium carried by dead birds can remain in waters around for a long time, and in the first place the unhygienic conditions of poultry farms must be rectified so that the accumulation of contaminated faeces and overcrowding of birds do not occur to grant chances for the survival of the bacterium; at any rate, however, it is very difficult to eliminate this introduced species and periodic outbreaks still occur in areas where the presence of P. multocida is noted.