Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Bacteria could stop frog killer
BBC News – news.bbc.co.uk
05 Jun 2008
R Black

The disease that is devastating amphibian populations around the world could be tackled using "friendly" bacteria, research suggests.

Scientists have found that certain types of bacteria which live naturally on amphibians produce chemicals that attack the disease-causing fungus. Recent results indicate the bacteria help frogs survive fungal infection.

The chytrid fungus is a major reason for the global decline which sees one third of amphibians facing extinction.

But the latest findings, reported at the American Society for Microbiology meeting in Boston, may give conservationists a new way to tackle the scourge.

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West Nile detected in Kanab
TheSpectrum.com – www.thespectrum.com
06 Jun 2008
J Weaver
Location: Kane County, Utah, USA – Map It

Southwest Utah Public Health Director Dr. David Blodgett received notification Wednesday afternoon during his presentation to the Iron County Coordinating Council in Enoch that the first identification of West Nile virus for 2008 had been detected in Kane County in a live crow at Best Friends Animal Society.

The official statement from SWUPHD and the Utah Department of Health was not issued until Thursday morning after there was confirmation of the virus made by Best Friends chief veterinarian, Dr. Michael Dix.

“Now that we have our first detection, it is important for the public to remember that West Nile virus season has arrived and that it’s time to start taking the usual precautions to prevent its spread,” Blodgett said in a prepared statement.

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Bird flu search finds none yet coming to N.America
Reuters – www.reuters.com
05 Jun 2008
M Fox

The feared H5N1 avian influenza has yet to make it to North America in the bodies of migrating birds, researchers said on Thursday.

Testing of more than 16,000 migratory birds between May 2006 and March 2007 showed no evidence of the H5N1 bird flu virus, which has become entrenched in many parts of Asia and which regularly pops up in flocks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The birds are infected with virtually every other known strain of influenza, said Hon Ip of the U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. But not the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

"Maybe the Pacific Ocean is a nice, big biological barrier, for which I am forever grateful," Ip said.

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Other Avian Influenza News

>>> Avian Influenza in Britain confirmed as highly pathogenic H7N7 – Map It

Fish disease reaches local area: Invasive virus found in gobies at Grant Park
Milwaukee Journal Online – www.jsonline.com
05 Jun 2008
L Bergquist and D Egan
Location: Grant Park, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, USA – Map It

Thousands of small fish that washed along the Lake Michigan shore at Grant Park in southern Milwaukee County were killed by an invasive fish disease, the Department of Natural Resources reported Thursday.

The fish - round gobies, which are themselves an invasive species brought into the Great Lakes two decades ago via oceangoing freighters - died from viral hemorrhagic septicemia, also known as VHS.

The Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in Madison confirmed the presence of the disease in gobies that were found May 28.

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WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS