Currently we have over 70 completed post mortem reports on foxes which also include early facial injury cases. We have submitted 14 suspected leptospirosis foxes this year and once those PM are done we will have had 80 foxes submitted.
My hope is that, for statistical analysis we will go as far as 100 foxes which will allow us to look at the highest, non-vehicle related, cause of death in foxes in and around the City and County of Bristol. This should then reflect what the national situation is expected to be and I would hope that rescues and vets will be more willing to submit weak, shutting down, jaundiced foxes for PM Examination locally. The big issue is always the costs of tests since they are rather expensive and yet essential.
TEM (Techniques in Electron Microscopy) and PCR/ RT-PCR (molecular diagnostics now common in animal research). It needs to be remember that all foxes submitted are tested for AIV (Avian Influenza Virus) before they can even undergo post mortem examination.
With a top pathologist working on the PM examinations we are discovering a great deal and other researchers are already benefitting. What we find now will, hopefully, form a data base for any future research projects carried out. The data will be available initially in an end of project report -the intention is to make our findings available -the work of Bristol Universities for fox study is apparently not available as a request to view the research findings was rejected.
Foxes and their health and place in the environment have long been ignored -as with other maligned wild canids- and it is hoped that we can change that not just with the Fox Deaths Project but also other work carried out including in situ treatment of injured and sick foxes.
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