Another Rabid Bat Found in Will County
www.wbbm780.com
30 Aug 2006
Photo courtesy of www.wbbm780.com
A bat found in Plainfield on Thursday is Will County's fourth confirmed case of wildlife rabies for 2006 and the second reported in less than a week.
The most recent bat was found on a garage floor of a home in Plainfield. No human exposure was identified, but a dog and two cats living on the property have been evaluated and received treatment, according to Will County Animal Control.
The agency visited 23 nearby residences and talked to approximately 60 people living near the bat confirmation in an effort to increase community awareness. Other wildlife is thought to live in the immediate vicinity, and animal control officials want to make sure area residents understand the potential risks.
"It is critical for people to understand that wild animals pose potential health risks for all of us and our pets, too," animal control Administrator Lee Schild said. "Wild animals, and even unfamiliar domestic animals, should not be petted or fed or housed by anyone."
What's Killing Bighorn Sheep?
Orgeon Public Broadcasting
30 Aug 2006
Elizabeth Wynne Johnson
There's a mystique to bighorn sheep. They're nimble enough to keep their footing on rocky slopes. And yet the image of rams clashing their mighty curved horns makes them the embodiment of raw power. But tough as they are, bighorn sheep are no match for an epidemic of disease. Now northwest states are joining forces to try and save the animals. Correspondent Elizabeth Wynne Johnson reports from Hell's Canyon.
Frances Cassirer stakes out her position on the eastern edge of Washington state. The only thing between her and a wall of rugged cliffs in Idaho is the Snake River. The Idaho Fish and Game biologist is peering through a scope at a handful of bighorn sheep. It's a nice place to raise lambs, because nothing else can get around up there.
Millions Died by Accident
The Australian
30 Aug 2006
Frank Fenner
MYXOMATOSIS constituted the main part of my personal research between 1952 and 1967. It was first recognised as a virus disease when it killed European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Giuseppe Sanarelli's laboratory in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1896. In 1911, workers in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro observed the disease in their laboratory rabbits and correctly classified the causative agent as a large virus.
Henrique de Beaurepaire Aragao, working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, showed that it could be transmitted mechanically by insect bite. In 1942, he showed that the reservoir host in Brazil was the local wild rabbit, Sylvilagus brasiliensis, in which the virus produced a localised nodule in the skin. Knowing that the European rabbit was a significant pest in Australia, and impressed by the lethality of the disease, in 1919 Aragao wrote to the Australian government suggesting that it should be used here for rabbit control, but the quarantine authorities would not permit its import.
DOI, USDA, State Partners Test More Than 13,000 Wild Migratory Birds in Alaska
USDA
29 Aug 2006
Angela Harless
No Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza Detected
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne today announced that their departments and the State of Alaska have tested more than 13,000 wild migratory birds for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in Alaska. No HPAI H5N1-a virus that has killed wild birds, commercial poultry and more than 140 people in Asia, Europe and Africa-has been detected in any of the Alaska samples.
"Guided by the national wild bird surveillance and early detection plan, our collaborative efforts have comprehensively sampled and tested high-priority species throughout Alaska," said Secretary Kempthorne, who this week is visiting a sampling camp near Barrow, Alaska. "Although no high-path H5N1 virus has yet been detected, we must remain vigilant and thorough in this important detection and early warning program. I'd also like to recognize the cooperation of Alaska subsistence hunters, of citizens who have reported dead birds, and of the Alaska public in general, who have made great efforts to become informed on this issue and thus are valuable partners in state and federal efforts."
Breakthrough Flu Test Speeds up Diagnosis, Pinpoints Strain
The New York Times (Posted by Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
29 Aug 2006
Donald G. Mcneil Jr.
Technology Allows Quick Decision-Making
In an advance that speeds up diagnosis of the most dangerous avian flu, scientists have developed a detailed influenza test that takes less than 12 hours, federal health officials said Monday. The new technology, a microchip covered with bits of genetic material from many different flu strains, cuts the typical time needed for diagnosis of the A(H5N1) flu to less than a day from a week or more. In addition, rather than giving just a yes-or-no result, it usually reveals which flu a human or an animal has.
That means that public health officials investigating, for example, a flu outbreak in poultry or in humans in a remote Asian or African village will be able to decide quickly whether to kill thousands of birds or to treat hundreds of potentially exposed people with expensive anti-viral drugs.
Right now, ascertaining whether a flu is of the lethal A(H5N1) strain requires that a sample be frozen and shipped to a highly secure laboratory, usually in a major city such as Atlanta or Hong Kong, where the virus can be grown in eggs, isolated and genetically sequenced, a process that takes four to five days plus shipping time and runs the risk of samples defrosting in transit and being ruined.
Avian Influenza Tests Complete on Michigan Mute Swans
USDA (Posted by North Texas e-News)
29 Aug 2006
The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced final test results, which confirm that an H5N1 avian influenza virus detected in samples collected earlier this month from two Michigan wild mute swans is a low pathogenic subtype. This strain has been detected several times in wild birds in North America and poses no threat to human health.
The USDA National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confirmed the presence of the "North American strain" of low pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza in one of twenty samples collected from the two wild mute swans. Preliminary test results announced on August 14 indicated that an H5N1 strain could be present in two of the collected samples. Only one of the samples contained high enough levels of the virus to conduct confirmatory testing. As previously announced, genetic testing ruled out the possibility that either of the samples carried the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 avian influenza that is circulating overseas.
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