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Fruit-crop losses due to birds are a longstanding and costly problem throughout the US. Although many deterrent techniques (e.g., acoustic scare tactics, netting, Mylar streamers, and chemical repellents) have been tested in the past, there is a lack of a systems approach to bird management. This study integrates economic and consumer impacts, as well region-specific information and landscape-level effects on bird foraging behaviors. This project integrates professional and landowner opinion to ensure long-term productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability of fruit crop production. Our primary long-term goal is to provide fruit producers with cost-effective and environmentally-sustainable strategies for bird damage management, based on robust field testing and clearly identified costs and benefits. We have completed one season of field work in central New York State in sweet cherries, blueberries, Honeycrisp apples, and Pinot Noir wine grapes. It has been proposed that birds forage more heavily on the outside edges of crop plantings. In order to test this, crop rows were split into two distinct categories: Edge (outermost two rows on all four sides), and Interior (inner rows >50m from exterior; where applicable). In summer 2012, preliminary bird surveys were conducted in order to assess which bird species were responsible for fruit damage. Observed birds were classified in three categories: actively foraging, nonforaging, and flyover. Visual damage assessments were completed on 60 randomly-selected plants, 12 in each of the 5 strata (N, S, E, W, and Interior). Bird damage was identified and recorded. Specific sampling techniques differed in each of the four crops based on plant growth form and logistics. Project staff assessed 81 sites in New York State; 23 sweet cherry, 12 blueberry, 24 apple, and 22 wine grape plantings. Weighted overall bird damage estimates were as follows: Honeycrisp apples had average 2.3% damage, wine grapes had 3.6%, blueberries had 22% and sweet cherries received the most damage from bird species at 26.8%. Web-based, mail, and telephone surveys were conducted in New York, Michigan, Washington, Oregon, and California during 2012, and we targeted growers of all four fruit crops, as well as tart cherries. Questions covered many different aspects of bird damage and fruit production. Based on the New York growers who responded to the economic survey, the current cost of bird damage in NY is more than $6.6 million, yearly for the four crops. In New York State, 65.5% of grower respondents take action to prevent or reduce bird damage in a given year. Fifty percent state that bird damage is one of several significant factors affecting their profit in a particular year. This information from the 81 New York sites is currently being integrated with: 1) analyses of fruit losses and economic consequences for producers, consumers, and local economies; 2) grower responses to different management techniques; and 3) landscape-scale habitat relationships associated with bird activity and damage. During summer 2013, our second field season, we will pilot test different bird deterrent strategies. These studies will focus on selective use of distress calls, and the relatively new technology in hawk-effigy models (ornithopters) and kites, as well as intensive foraging bird surveys. This research in New York is part of a USDA SCRI-funded collaborative project to evaluate bird impacts and economic losses in major fruit-producing regions of the United States, including Michigan and the Pacific Northwest. Preliminary results may be complicated by severe frost damage which occurred in early 2012.

Burgeoning white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations in suburban landscapes continue to impact communities and challenge natural resource managers. Increased deer-related damage to vegetation, ecosystems, and automobiles can exceed the tolerance of local stakeholders. We provide an overview of the potential efficacy of using surgical sterilization to help manage populations and conflicts associated with locally overabundant white-tailed deer populations. We review theoretical and fi eld studies pertaining to deer sterilization, and provide research priorities to help guide future sterilization efforts. Recent fi eld studies suggest that sterilization of female deer remains expensive, at approximately $1,000 per surgery. Sterilization may provide an alternative management technique for reducing suburban deer herds in communities willing to endure the costs of a long-term effort and where lethal deer removal is unacceptable or impractical. Surgical sterilization is scale-limited based on the ability to capture and sterilize 80% or more of the female deer in a population and maintain that proportion of the population treated over time. Overall success will be greatest for closed or insular deer herds where the effects of immigration can be minimized.

White-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ) are highly susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, with multiple reports of widespread spillover of virus from humans to free-living deer. While the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 Omicron variant of concern (VoC) has been shown to be notably more transmissible amongst humans, its ability to cause infection and spillover to non-human animals remains a challenge of concern. We found that 19 of the 131 (14.5%; 95% CI: 0.10-0.22) white-tailed deer opportunistically sampled on Staten Island, New York, between December 12, 2021, and January 31, 2022, were positive for SARS-CoV-2 specific serum antibodies using a surrogate virus neutralization assay, indicating prior exposure. The results also revealed strong evidence of age-dependence in antibody prevalence. A significantly (χ 2 , p < 0.001) greater proportion of yearling deer possessed neutralizing antibodies as compared with fawns (OR=12.7; 95% CI 4-37.5). Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid was detected in nasal swabs from seven of 68 (10.29%; 95% CI: 0.0-0.20) of the sampled deer, and whole-genome sequencing identified the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VoC (B.1.1.529) is circulating amongst the white-tailed deer on Staten Island. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the deer Omicron sequences clustered closely with other, recently reported Omicron sequences recovered from infected humans in New York City and elsewhere, consistent with human to deer spillover. Interestingly, one individual deer was positive for viral RNA and had a high level of neutralizing antibodies, suggesting either rapid serological conversion during an ongoing infection or a "breakthrough" infection in a previously exposed animal. Together, our findings show that the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 Omicron VoC can infect white-tailed deer and highlights an urgent need for comprehensive surveillance of susceptible animal species to identify ecological transmission networks and better assess the potential risks of spillback to humans., Key Findings: These studies provide strong evidence of infection of free-living white-tailed deer with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 Omicron variant of concern on Staten Island, New York, and highlight an urgent need for investigations on human-to-animal-to-human spillovers/spillbacks as well as on better defining the expanding host-range of SARS-CoV-2 in non-human animals and the environment.