Juan Hernandez

Bio 1615

In February 2000 and January 2010 scientist collected serum samples from 31 Jaguars,

174 dogs, and 35 domestic cats. Scientists have tested these animals and have been examined

from different parts of Brazil like Cerrado, Pantanal, and The Amazon. The three main deadly

infections that were tested and found in these animals were rabies virus, Canine distemper virus

(CDV), Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and Feline leukemia virus (FeLV). Jaguars that

were from Cerrado and Pantanal were infected with the rabies virus but in Pantanal some Jaguars

had CDV and the dogs from all three areas also had CDV. In the Amazon two cats tested

positive for FeLV, but no jaguars tested positive for FeLV or FIV. CDV and rabies is a big threat

to jaguars and any other animals. Any area that feels threatened by these animals and infections

should have strong restricted areas and also mandatory vaccinations to certain animals.

Introduction

Domestic flesh eating animals is the main reason for these out breaks, they have deadly

bacteria that can be passed on to other animals which can destroy and decline habitats and

generations. For example CDV was the cause for the populations of African wild dogs, lions, and

black footed ferrets to decline. As well as the Rabies virus which caused Ethiopian wolves and

some other African dog populations to drop. The Iberian Lynx population tumbled do to the

FeLV. Jaguars are the top predators in these tropical jungles and need to be in large areas that fit

their needs of habitats and big feasts to feed their cubs. When it comes to humans they become

very anxious and very sensitive of what humans might do to them which can cause jaguars to

attack humans if they are too close to their boundaries which humans feel the exact same way.

Even though Jaguars could be in their natural habitat, they could also be at high risk with all of

these diseases.
 Juan Hernandez
Bio 1615

Although scientist study medicines to help control these viruses, they still don’t know

how they can cure these viruses or how jaguars catch these viruses, but they will soon find out.

Materials & Methods

Three regions of Brazil have been studied such as Emas National Park (ENP) which is in

Cerrado, Caiman Ecological Refuge which is located in Pantanal, and finally Canta State Park

(CSP) which is between the Cerrado and the Amazon. The Emas National Park is surrounded by

crop plantations and is 132,000 acres big. ENP is one of the last resourceful places to go for

jaguars which has plenty of vegetation and crop land where humans plant their own food. People

in the Pantanal are heavily involved in cattle ranching and will definitely kill jaguars and any

other harmful animals if they was to destroy their crops or families. The habitat is very important

to these jaguars because they need to adapt to their environment and humans also make it very

difficult for jaguars because humans have all of their life stock in their village which could cause

jaguars or any other animals to try and snatch their food from humans and could end up getting

killed over it.

In overall scientist captured 30 free ranging jaguars between 2000 and 2009 do to their

studying. The beautiful jaguars were captured by trained dogs or metal cages in order to do

studies on them. Once they were captured they were injected with anesthesia which makes them

unconscious for a certain amount of time while scientist do studies on each jaguar such as

drawing blood samples, examining their physical health and conditions, hydration levels,

injuries, fractures of the bones, and any other illnesses that make them weak. The 30 jaguars

were sorted out as adults and juveniles by their teeth and body weight. Once classified, the adults

were let back into to the wild but could still be tracked down with radio collars and recaptured

thirteen of them back with camera traps.

 Juan Hernandez
Bio 1615

In the same area 174 dogs and 35 cats were captured and the same examinations were

done to these dogs and cats, but the areas that these dogs and cats were captured in were rural

areas such as farms, ranches, and homes where people have all their livestock, which means that

these animals or any other animals could have been killed by these village people or other

predators. After the examinations on these dogs and cats scientist found out that dogs and jaguars

tested positive for CDV, some jaguars and cats were positive FIV and FeLV. Usually dogs and

cats are usually vaccinated for rabies but the World Health Organization recommended that it

would be cut off by using titrations on these dogs and cats instead. Jaguars never tested positive

for the rabies virus. By using software data scientist used these tests and compared them with

other animals.

Results

With no signs of diseases and very good physical conditions 29 out 30 jaguars were

excellent with just the right body weight. In the ENP area 5 jaguars tested negative for rabies, but

when they were released and a three month wait to recapture them again, one jaguar tested for

rabies and the other four tested negative for rabies and CDV. In CSP four other jaguars tested

negative for rabies and CDV, but in the Pantanal 22 jaguars were captured and only three of

them came back positive for rabies. For the CDV disease 11 jaguars tested positive. CDV disease

was mostly found in female jaguars than the male ones. Other diseases such as FIV and FeLV

were not found at all in this whole experiment.

Discussion

Rabies was found in jaguars from the Cerrado and Pantanal and the dogs from Pantanal

were positive for CDV, but no jaguars had FeLV but the cats did that were from the Amazon
 Juan Hernandez
Bio 1615

area. Scientist believe that jaguars catch the rabies virus or other viruses by indulging their prey

which might already be infected with the virus or other viruses. If jaguars did eat any infected

prey they could be infected as well and when attacking other animals or humans, they could be

infected by their bacteria which has the virus and could be passed on to others and cause death.

Dog owners were requested to vaccinate their dogs and even with a low percentage rate with

rabies, owners did not have to revaccinate their dogs after certain amount of time. But owners

were still worried that their dogs and cats could still get the virus. Vaccinations should be a

mandatory solution so that the animals and owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting sick

and dying in the future