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Does aerial baiting for controlling feral cats in a heterogeneous landscape confer benefits to a threatened native meso-predator?

ABSTRACT: Introduced mammalian predators can have devastating impacts on recipient ecosystems and disrupt native predator-prey relationships. Feral cats (Felis catus) have been implicated in the decline and extinction of many Australian native species and developing effective and affordable methods to control them is a national priority. While there has been considerable progress in the lethal control of feral cats, effective management at landscape scales has proved challenging. Justification of the allocation of resources to feral cat control programs requires demonstration of the conservation benefit baiting provides to native species susceptible to cat predation. Here, we examined the effectiveness of a landscape-scale Eradicat® baiting program to protect threatened northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus) from feral cat predation in a heterogeneous rocky landscape in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. We used camera traps and GPS collars fitted to feral cats to monitor changes in activity patterns of feral cats and northern quolls at a baited treatment site and unbaited reference site over four years. Feral cat populations appeared to be naturally sparse in our study area, and camera trap monitoring showed no significant effect of baiting on cat detections. However, mortality rates of collared feral cats ranged from 18-33% after baiting, indicating that the program was reducing cat numbers. Our study demonstrated that feral cat baiting had a positive effect on northern quoll populations, with evidence of range expansion at the treatment site. We suggest that the rugged rocky habitat preferred by northern quolls in the Pilbara buffered them to some extent from feral cat predation, and baiting was sufficient to demonstrate a positive effect in this relatively short-term project. A more strategic approach to feral cat management is likely to be required in the longer-term to maximise the efficacy of control programs and thereby improve the conservation outlook for susceptible threatened fauna.

SUBMITTER: Palmer R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8104397 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Recombination is a relatively common phenomenon in retroviruses. We investigated recombination in Feline Immunodeficiency Virus from naturally-infected New Zealand domestic cats (Felis catus) by sequencing regions of the gag, pol and env genes. RESULTS:The occurrence of intragenic recombination was highest in env, with evidence of recombination in 6.4% (n = 156) of all cats. A further recombinant was identified in each of the gag (n = 48) and pol (n = 91) genes. Comparisons of phylogenetic trees across genes identified cases of incongruence, indicating intergenic recombination. Three (7.7%, n = 39) of these incongruencies were found to be significantly different using the Shimodaira-Hasegawa test.Surprisingly, our phylogenies from the gag and pol genes showed that no New Zealand sequences group with reference subtype C sequences within intrasubtype pairwise distances. Indeed, we find one and two distinct unknown subtype groups in gag and pol, respectively. These observations cause us to speculate that these New Zealand FIV strains have undergone several recombination events between subtype A parent strains and undefined unknown subtype strains, similar to the evolutionary history hypothesised for HIV-1 "subtype E".Endpoint dilution sequencing was used to confirm the consensus sequences of the putative recombinants and unknown subtype groups, providing evidence for the authenticity of these sequences. Endpoint dilution sequencing also resulted in the identification of a dual infection event in the env gene. In addition, an intrahost recombination event between variants of the same subtype in the pol gene was established. This is the first known example of naturally-occurring recombination in a cat with infection of the parent strains. CONCLUSION:Evidence of intragenic recombination in the gag, pol and env regions, and complex intergenic recombination, of FIV from naturally-infected domestic cats in New Zealand was found. Strains of unknown subtype were identified in all three gene regions. These results have implications for the use of the current FIV vaccine in New Zealand.

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Does aerial baiting for controlling feral cats in a heterogeneous landscape confer benefits to a threatened native meso-predator?

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