Low prevalence of Trichomonas gallinae in urban and migratory Cooper's Hawks in northcentral North America
Trichomoniasis is a digestive tract disease caused by ingestion of the protozoan Trichomonas gallinae . This disease can be a significant source of mortality. No deaths of nestlings could be attributed to trichomoniasis in Cooper's Hawks ( Accipiter cooperii ) breeding in urban and rural environs in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and British Columbia. We detected T. gallinae in four (5.2%) of 77 nestling Cooper's Hawks during 2006 and 2007 among 42 urban nests on new study areas in southeast Wisconsin and eastern North Dakota/western Minnesota. All four infected young fledged. We did not detect T. gallinae in 52 breeding adult Cooper's Hawks on two urban study sites, nor in 28 migrant hatching year ( n = 24) and adult ( n = 4) Cooper's Hawks at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, Duluth, Minnesota in 2006–2007. Overall, we detected T. gallinae in only 2.5% of 157 Cooper's Hawks in northcentral North America. These results suggest a low prevalence of T. gallinae in Cooper's Hawks in the northern part of this hawk's breeding range.