Alaska Villagers Living in Bird Flu's Flight Path
Los Angeles Times /latimes.com
22 Oct 2006
Jia-Rui Chong
Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times
What has brought the Eskimos sustenance for generations now may carry the deadly virus into North America
The 800 Yup'Ik Eskimos in this wet and lonely village knew the situation was serious when government scientists began swooping in on bush planes. Except for a few doctors that fly in each year to give villagers checkups, outsiders rarely visited this outpost of scattered gray plywood homes and prefab structures plopped in the middle of the tundra.
Soon, latex gloves appeared on store shelves and Wild West-style posters started popping up around town: "Wanted: Birds of the Delta." Researchers camped out in the town's tribal council offices, preparing for trips to nearby Kwigluk Island with vials, swabs, nets and needles.
They came bearing a warning: The wild birds that the Yup'ik have hunted for millenniums may be carrying the first traces of the deadly bird flu virus from Asia into North America. "It's kind of scary, you know," said resident Ronnie Peter, 39. "That's like, our food, you know."
Avian Flu Spreading Steadily Worldwide
Washington Bureau (Posted by MyrtleBeachOnline.com)
23 Oct 2006
Tony Pugh
Less than a year ago, Americans could barely turn on the television, surf the Internet or pick up a newspaper without finding a doomsday story about deadly avian flu. By last November, President Bush had asked Congress for $7.1 billion to help develop a vaccine, stockpile antiviral medications and fund state preparations for a possible pandemic.
Now, with the disease still centered in Asia and the failure of migratory birds to spread the illness to Europe and North America, the H5N1 virus has dropped out of the media spotlight. The dearth of coverage has prompted some to think that the threat of a pandemic has passed. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.
So far this year, a person dies from the disease roughly every four days, compared with about once every nine days last year, according to World Health Organization data. Of the 108 confirmed human cases of bird flu thus far this year, 73 have been fatal. That's up from 97 cases and 42 deaths in all of last year.
Hunters Asked to Collect Samples
Gazette News Services (Posted by Billingsgazette.com/The Billings Gazette)
23 Oct 2006
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department is asking elk hunters to collect blood samples to help track brucellosis. The Madison and Emigrant elk management units are the focus of FWP's brucellosis surveillance this year.
Blood sample kits with instructions for hunters will be available in red kiosks at many trailheads in the Madison and Emigrant areas, the FWP said. They are also available at check stations, FWP headquarters in Bozeman and at U.S. Forest Service offices in Livingston, Ennis and West Yellowstone.
Brucellosis is a contagious disease that can cause abortions and other problems in wildlife. "Hunter harvest samples are our primary data source for brucellosis monitoring," Neil Anderson, FWP wildlife laboratory supervisor, said in a statement.
Minnesota Zoo Protects Herds Against Chronic Wasting
Associated Press (Posted by TwinCities.com)
22 Oct 2006
The Minnesota Zoo is taking steps to protect its cervid, or deer family, population from the threat of chronic wasting disease. Orphaned wild moose, deer or elk can no longer find a new home at the zoo in Apple Valley or other zoos in the state.
The fatal animal brain disease has never been found in Minnesota's wild herds, but the threat of chronic wasting disease has forced changes in state and national rules.
"If CWD got into a zoo here, it would be a true catastrophe," said Paul Anderson, a veterinarian and the assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. "That's not something we want to see happen."
Although birds and other wild animals sometimes do enter the Minnesota Zoo's confines, they do not pose the serious hazard that deer do. Because chronic wasting disease, or CWD, can only be tested for in dead animals, there's no way to tell if an animal is infected. The disease could spread before keepers ever knew there was a problem.
Deer Season Opening with New Fears about Venison [Editorial]
Best Syndication
21 Oct 2006
Martha Rosenberg
Avoid shooting a deer that appears sick. Wear latex gloves when field-dressing.
Avoid cutting through bones or the spinal column. Do not use household knives or utensils. Never eat a deer’s brain, eyeballs, spinal cord, spleen or lymph nodes.
That's the advice hunting officials have been giving hunters since the 2002 US outbreak of chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD is a mad cow like disorder afflicting deer and elk but not believed to spread to humans. But after two articles in Science this year, they might want to add "get your affairs in order." Because that's how risky venison will probably look to some this deer season.
Deer hunting was just getting back to normal in a kind of don't ask/don't tell detente. While hunting states like Colorado and Wisconsin were curtailing their original CWD eradication programs and conceding defeat, people weren't afraid to eat or butcher deer anymore. Food pantries were accepting venison again--recipients get a warning flier--and presumably not asking why the meat was okay for the poor and not the donor.
Bluetongue in Northern Europe : OIE Reference Laboratory Makes a Breakthrough in Identifying the Vector Causing the Disease [Press Release]
World Organisation for Animal Health
23 Oct 2006
The OIE Reference Laboratory in Teramo , Italy established that an insect adapted to European climate acted as the vector responsible for the recent bluetongue outbreaks in Northern Europe . The vector, a biting midge of the culicoides species was identified as Culicoides dewulfi. Previously it was thought the biting midge responsible for the current spread of the disease might be Culicoides imicola which is commonly found in Africa .
“It is an important new epidemiological event because previously all bluetongue outbreaks were linked to an African vector. This suggests the disease could now stay in all the region with the risk of more cases occurring in spring when the vector activity is very high”, Dr Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organisation for Animal Health said during a meeting of an OIE expert group on the disease.
Following unusual outbreaks in Belgium, The Netherlands and France the OIE called for best world veterinary experts on bluetongue to advise the OIE and Member Countries on adjusting existing standards and guidelines for the containment and control of the disease while maintaining a scientific basis for the continuation of trade in live animals. Gathered at the OIE headquarters in Paris on Friday October 20 th 2006 , the scientists, including Dr Rudi Meisswinkel responsible for the finding, disclosed a European vector was incriminated for the first time in the spread of bluetongue in the region.
Pets and Disease [Press Release]
Purdue University
24 Mar 2006
A national surveillance network that uses the medical records of companion animals could help prepare for a wide variety of emerging disease threats to humans and animals, including avian influenza, according to veterinary scientists at Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine.
The National Companion Animal Surveillance Program was originally designed to alert people to potential anthrax or plague outbreaks. New findings on tests of the program are detailed in the current edition of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, a medical journal that focuses on diseases transmitted to humans by vectors such as mosquitoes or directly from animals.
Larry Glickman, a professor of epidemiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, designed the National Companion Animal Surveillance Program in collaboration with Banfield, The Pet Hospital, a nationwide chain of veterinary hospitals. Between 2002 and 2004, tests were conducted on more than 10 million pet records to determine how the database could be used to monitor disease outbreaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment