Hunters Should Be on Lookout for Bird Flu: National Monitoring Program
Designed to Provide Early Warning
The Morning Call Online
22 Aug 2006
Christian Berg
Public health officials bracing for the possible arrival of the deadly Asian bird flu are asking the nation's hunters to assist in the monitoring effort. Pennsylvania's Canada goose and mourning dove seasons begin Sept. 1, and Game Commission officials say the state's more than 100,000 migratory bird hunters can help by paying close attention to their quarry and reporting any sickness or unexplained deaths to the agency.
Although wild birds routinely die for a variety of reasons — including illness, trauma, accidents, infections and ingestion of pesticides — the commission is asking hunters to report instances of five or more birds (not including pigeons) found dead or ill in the same area within a two-day period.
''Bag and refrigerate, but do not freeze, the birds in a cooler with ice until arrangements for pickup or disposal can be made,'' said Dr. Walt Cottrell, the commission's wildlife veterinarian. Migratory birds including waterfowl, shorebirds, gulls and terns act as a natural reservoir for numerous strains of avian influenza, or bird flu.
Climate Linked to Plague IncreaseBBC News
22 Aug 2006
Photos Courtesy of Barry Dowsett/Science Photo Library and BBC News
Climatic changes could lead to more outbreaks of bubonic plague among human populations, a study suggests.
Researchers found that the bacterium that caused the deadly disease became more widespread following warmer springs and wetter summers. The disease occurs naturally in many parts of the world, and the team hopes their findings will help officials limit the risk of future outbreaks.
The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The bacterium Yersinia pestis is believed to have triggered the Black Death that killed more than 20 million people in the Middle Ages.The international team of scientists, who focused their research on Kazakhstan, said the disease was widespread among rodent populations. Writing in the paper, co-author Nils Stenseth from the University of Oslo said: "The desert regions of Central Asia are known to contain natural foci of plague where the great gerbil (Rhombomys opimus) is the primary host.
Peotone Bat Infected with Rabies
The Herald News Online
22 Aug 2006
Will County's third confirmed case of wildlife rabies for 2006 is the second rabid bat found in Peotone since late June. A bat found lying near a home on west North Street in Peotone was rushed to Chicago's Illinois Department of Public Health Laboratory Complex and confirmed rabid late Friday.
No people were exposed to the animal, and a dog on the property was vaccinated against rabies, but Will County Animal Control is concerned about recent local rabies activity. An 87-year-old Peotone man began a course of anti-rabies prophylaxis June 24, after he was bitten by a bat in his yard.
The bats identified in these two Peotone incidents were found only a few blocks apart. Will County's first rabies confirmation for 2006 was a bat found June 7 near a rural Frankfort barn. Cook, Winnebago and Will counties are the only Illinois counties to report three confirmed cases of bat rabies so far this year.
Distemper Epidemic Averted by Relocation Ban, Says Official
Mail Tribune
20 Aug 2006
Mark Freeman
A distemper outbreak that began last year in Medford has spread throughout local populations of raccoon, skunks and other Southern Oregon critters. But one wildlife biologist believes a year-old ban on the relocation of captured raccoons from city limits to the wild has slowed the spread and scope of the deadly disease.
"It's an outbreak but it's not an epidemic, and that could be why," said Rosemary Stussy, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist who handles wildlife damage complaints in Jackson and Josephine counties. "When you have something like distemper, it certainly makes sense, biologically, not to risk spreading the disease even more," she said.
Distemper is a highly contagious and generally fatal virus that regularly spikes in urban areas of the Northwest once city populations of raccoons, skunks and other animals surge. A fatal viral disease that attacks the central nervous system of most warm-blooded animals, rabies can be transmitted through an infected animal's bite.
Disease Kills Rare Chimpanzees
IPP Media
18 Aug 2006
Adam Ihucha
A mysterious disease has killed 20 chimpanzees of a rare species found in Mahale Mountains National Park in Kigoma Region, the Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa) said yesterday. The animals, with peculiar physical features and colour, died in just one week.
The primates’ natural habitat is 120km south of Kigoma on a peninsula that cuts into Lake Tanganyika. ”In just one week, 20 pink chimpanzees were found dead in the sanctuary and their carcasses pointed to the possibility that they may have died of a pneumonia-like disease,” Tanapa Director General Gerald Bigurube said.
As investigations into the cause of the deaths got underway, there were fears that adaptation could also be one of the causes of the deaths. Some officials from Tanapa related the deaths of the primates to Charles Darwin’s evolution theories of ”survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit” and ”natural selection” to balance between the animal population and the natural habitat.
Scientist Fears Disease Outbreaks in Northern Whales
CBC News
18 Aug 2006
A researcher with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans is concerned that climate change may introduce new diseases that could decimate the North's narwhal and beluga whale populations.
Diseases such as distemper and brucellosis could trigger dramatic die-offs among northern whale groups, said Ole Nielson, who presented his findings at the Coastal Zone Canada Conference in Tuktoyaktuk on Thursday.
Nielson has found brucellosis in about 20 per cent of the whales he tested, a four-fold increase over the past five years. The disease, caused by bacteria, can cause weight loss in animals, infertility and lameness. It can also can also spread to humans, which is why Nielson is recommending that whale harvesters take care when butchering animals.
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