The investigation involved 37 herds of cattle numbering 6,280 animals and 5 groups of blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), consisting of 30-330 wildebeest per group. All the cases of wildebeest-derived malignant catarrhal fever encountered were associated with wildebeest and not with other game animals. Six per cent of the cases were encountered in late summer when the wildebeest calves wer...

Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is an economically important disease primarily of domestic cattle with a high case fatality rate. It is caused by either alcelaphine herpesvirus type 1 (AlHV-1) or ovine herpesvirus type 2 (OvHV-2). The major reservoir host of AlHV-1 is the blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus), but it is generally accepted that the black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) is also ...

Background: Theories of density-dependent habitat selection provide two solutions for co-existence of competing species. The niche compression hypothesis predicts that species reduce their respective niche breadths in response to inter-specific competition. Alternatively, if the species have similar resource preferences, the subordinate species may be forced to expand its niche to incorporate s...

Rumen contents from four blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and six black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) were collected from two locations during two winter culling seasons. A total of 16 species of protozoa were found in blue wildebeest with Dasytricha ruminantium, Opisthotrichum janus and Ostracodinium gracile occurring in all four animals. In black wildebeest, 23 species of protozoa wer...

The epidemiology of wildebeest-derived malignant catarrhal fever in South Africa differs from the worldwide accepted pattern. Here the occurrence of the disease is often not related to close contact between cattle and wildebeest, and most cases are observed during late winter and spring, when wildebeest calves are 8-10 months old. This is in contrast to the situation in Kenya and Tanzania, wher...

Little work has been conducted on the helminth parasites of artiodactylids in the northern and western parts of the Limpopo province, which is considerably drier than the rest of the province. The aim of this study was to determine the kinds and numbers of helminth that occur in different wildlife hosts in the area as well as whether any zoonotic helminths were present. Ten impalas (Aepyceros m...

Multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain the annual migration of the Serengeti wildebeest, but few studies have compared distribution patterns with environmental drivers. We used a rainfall-driven model of grass dynamics and wildebeest movement to generate simulated monthly wildebeest distributions, with wildebeest movement decisions depending on 14 candidate models of adaptive movemen...

The Serengeti wildebeest migration is a rare and spectacular example of a once-common biological phenomenon. A proposed road project threatens to bisect the Serengeti ecosystem and its integrity. The precautionary principle dictates that we consider the possible consequences of a road completely disrupting the migration. We used an existing spatially-explicit simulation model of wildebeest move...

Alcelaphine herpesvirus-1 (AlHV-1), a causative agent of malignant catarrhal fever in cattle, was detected in wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) placenta tissue for the first time. Although viral load was low, the finding of viral DNA in over 50% of 94 samples tested lends support to the possibility that placental tissue could play a role in disease transmission and that wildebeest calves are i...