“Low Pathogenic” Bird Flu Virus Found in Illinois
Wiki News (Posted by eCanadaNow.com)
01 Oct 2006
The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that 5 out of 11 wild migratory Green-winged Teals have tested positive for a “low pathogeniz sub type” of the H5 and N1 Avian Flu virus or Bird Flu virus, but also say that this is not the same type of Avian Flu that has killed over 150 people worldwide and that the detection poses “no threat to humans.” “Initial tests confirm that these wild duck samples do not contain the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. These samples were collected from apparently healthy birds and initial test results indicate the presence of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) virus, which poses no threat to human health,” said the USDA in a statement on its website.
Samples from the ducks were retrieved on September 24, 2006 and were found in the Rice Lake Conservation Area of Fulton County located in Illinois. The USDA and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources tested the samples as part of a Bird Flu monitoring program. The USDA also says that they do not expect to find any “additional cases of common strains of avian influenza in birds.” “These strains of the virus include LPAI H5N1, commonly referred to as “North American” H5N1, which is very different from the more severe HPAI H5N1 circulating overseas,” said the statement.
The ducks are not believed to be infected with the deadly H5N1 virus, but officials say both subtypes H5 and N1 have been found in the samples. “Eleven samples were collected directly from the ducks. Of those samples, a pool of five samples tested positive for H5 and were sent to USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, for confirmatory testing. One of the five samples screened by NVSL tested positive for both H5 and N1. However, this does not mean these ducks are infected with an H5N1 strain. It is possible that there could be two separate avian influenza viruses, one containing H5 and the other containing N1,” continued the statement.
Why are Sea Otters Dying in Alaska?
SitNews.us
29 Sep 2006
Melissa DeVaughn
Thin and listless, the sea otter washed ashore the morning of Sept. 19 at Homer, Alaska. Struggling to breathe, it appeared partially paralyzed. By 9:47 a.m., a phone call came in to Homer resident Cy St-Amand, who with his wife L.A. Holmes volunteers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to monitor and pick up stranded marine mammals. As he has done countless times before, St-Amand arrived on the scene, observed the animal's behavior, scooped the otter up and began the 173-mile drive to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward for treatment.
Unfortunately, St-Amand said, the otter displayed the classic symptoms of a deadly bacterial infection linked to a die-off in Kachemak Bay. Fish and Wildlife calls such die-offs "Unusual Mortality Events" or UMEs, and this one has attracted the attention of national sea otter experts. In November, a team of federal biologists will arrive in Homer to study the phenomenon and see what, if anything, can be done to stem the Kachemak Bay die-off.
"They will be able to provide ... the specialists to come in, and that's truly the most important part of this," said Angela Doroff, a wildlife biologist with Fish and Wildlife's Marine Mammal Management division. "We're getting help exactly where we need it." No one knows exactly how severe the Kachemak Bay die-off is, Doroff said, but the anecdotal evidence is troubling. Over the years, reports of washed-up otters, either dead or nearly dead, have increased along the Homer Spit and surrounding area.
Spring Viraemia of Carp in Canada
27 Sep 2006
OIE Animal Health Alert (Posted by usaha.org)
Spring viraemia of carp has been detected in Hamilton harbour, Ontario, in fresh water common carps (Cyprinus carpio) in open production system. Population was spawning at time of collection and showed no clinical signs of the disease. The sample fishes were collected in late June for screening prior to shipment of carps from this area to another country. 30 pooled samples (5 fish in each pooled sample) were collected at the same location, the virus has been detected in 18 samples.
The shipment was cancelled. The diagnosis has been made by the Freshwater Institute and the Pacific Biological Station (national laboratories of the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans) and by the CEFAS(1) Weymouth Laboratory, United Kingdom (OIE reference laboratory), using pathogen isolation on cell culture and PCR(2). Further investigations will be done to compare this isolate with others.
Officials Discuss Animal Die-off Response
Record-Bee.com
02 Oct 2006
Cynthia Davis
The City Council will soon discuss banning any feeding of ducks or waterfowl at Library Park. This comes after another dead duck was found last weekend at Library Park and one of the ducks tested previously by the California Department of Fish and Game has tested positive for H5 avian influenza. According to officials at the California Department of Fish and Game, further testing is now being done to determine the exact avian influenza subtype.
Alexia Retallack, a California Fish and Game information officer, said that all indications show that this is a low-pathogen strain of bird flu that is not a threat to human health. "In this particular case, we had a positive hit for avian influenza and the subtype is H5 category," said Retallack. "There are 16 h types and 9 N types which can mix together into 144 different combinations, most of which are no problem," Retallack added, "So when you get an H5 you send it in for further testing to determine the N type. So far it looks like there is nothing to worry about."
The duck is undergoing further testing at the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, said Retallack. The lab would have notified them if the sub type was N1 or something to be concerned about, she added. "The most important thing they were able to figure out is that it was low pathogen," said Fish and Game biologist, Patrick Foy. USGS Office of Communications spokesperson Catherine Puckett said, "So far, in North America, we have not found the virus strain of concern (HPAI or Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1) worldwide in any of the thousands of ducks and other birds we have tested.
Turtles of the Caribbean: The Curse of Illegal TradeWorld Wildlife Fund
01 Oct 2006
Photo courtesy of WWF-Canon/Cat Holloway
Mazatlán, Mexico – Marine turtles in the Carribean region continue to be exploited at an alarming rate through the trade — both legal and illegal — of their shells, meat and eggs, according to a new report. The report, Turning the tide, by TRAFFIC — the wildlife trade monitoring programme of WWF and IUCN, The World Conservation Union — also revealed that marine turtles remain without adequate protection in more than half of the 26 countries and territories surveyed in the Lesser Antilles, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela.
“Regulations and management regimes do not effectively restrict using marine turtles,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC International. “In many cases, animals taken are large juveniles and adult turtles, those that are most important for promoting the recovery of populations.” Broad added that even in some countries with comprehensive legislation protecting marine turtles, illegal takes and trade continue because enforcement is often weak or non-existent.
In a separate survey conducted last March in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, TRAFFIC found that shells of hawksbill turtles were available in both countries, with large quantities openly offered for sale. In the Dominican Republic, where legislation prohibits the capture, killing, collection, and commerce of these animals, one retailer had over 1,500 hawksbill shell items on display. Where countries have adopted bans on exploitation, such as in Barbados, the report showed evidence that their turtles continue to be exploited elsewhere in the Caribbean where both legal and illegal takes continue to operate.
No comments:
Post a Comment