Post Mortem Finding of Four Babesia Positive Foxes in City of Bristol

 

A Red Fox at the British Wildlife Centre in Surrey, England   (c)2022 Julie Mowbray

It has taken seven (?) months of my life and the fantastic work of Zoe Webber (co-lead on the Dead Foxes Project) but we are seeing results.

The pathologist involved is considered one of the best with a justifiable reputation. He has stuck to things desite the financial constraints and can only be highly commended.

What has been discovered is that four jaundiced foxes are definitely positive for babesia. We got one and I thought that was it it but to get four from the City of Bristol in such a short time period is...unexpected. Test are underway on two other foxes as tests examples.

Notes on the matter can be found in this post:

https://foxwildcatwolverineproject.blogspot.com/2021/11/preliminary-notes-on-babesia-found-in.html

We have found out a lot about the ways urban foxes in the City are dying and underlying conditions that we would not normally know about and these I hope to publish more formal notes on at a later date.

The post mortem reports have also gone to experts at the Animal Plant Health Advisory (APHA), Natural England and soon.

Zoe Webber and myself will continue with the Fox Deaths Project though we are still trying to assess what the finding of four babesia cases could indicate.

 Babesia was first recorded in a UK fox in 2015: Detection of Babesia annae DNA in lung exudate samples from Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain Bartley, Wilson, Hamilton and Katzer, Feb. 2016 is obviously out of date now but is a starting point.

What goes on with urban foxes in Bristol, the second largest population of foxes outside of London will also apply to London...or even Leicester, Edinburgh or Cardiff. So unless the findings in Bristol are unique there are ramifications.

Hopefully, Hayley de Ronde can share her thoughts on this.