Researchers Detect CWD in Heart Muscle of Elk and White-tailed Deer [News Release]
University of Wyoming
13 Oct 2006
Chronic wasting disease for the first time has been found in the heart muscle of white-tailed deer and elk, according to researchers in the University of Wyoming's College of Agriculture.
The finding is important to wildlife managers, hunters and scientists because the cardiac muscle -- which comprises meat -- of big-game animals susceptible to CWD is consumed by humans. Hunters, however, should not be alarmed, said Jean Jewell, a research scientist in the UW Department of Veterinary Sciences.
"There is a tendency for people to become alarmed when they hear something that makes them think their health might be at risk, but at this stage there is no evidence to suggest humans are susceptible to CWD," Jewell said. That does not mean hunters shouldn't take precautions, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (G&F). They are advised not to kill or eat animals that appear sick, and it is recommended they wear long, disposable rubber or latex gloves when field dressing animals. This will help protect them from not only CWD but other diseases.
Meat should be removed from bones when butchering, according to G&F. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization recommend animals testing positive for CWD not be consumed, according to a two-page brochure on CWD recently published by the G&F. The brochure is available at G&F district offices across Wyoming and includes regulations governing the disease in the state, where it has been found, management efforts and how hunters can protect themselves and help prevent the spread of the disease.
Joint DOI and USDA News Release: Ohio Wild Bird Samples Undergo Additional Avian Influenza Testing [News Release]
United States Department of Agriculture
14 Oct 2006
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of the Interior (DOI) today announced a detection of H5 and N1 avian influenza subtypes in samples from apparently healthy wild Northern pintails in Ottawa County, Ohio, that were killed by a hunter. Initial tests confirm that these wild bird samples do not contain the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain that has spread through birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. Initial test results indicate the presence of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) virus, which poses no threat to human health.
The bird samples were collected on Oct. 8 through a partnership between USDA and the Ohio Division of Wildlife as part of an expanded wild bird monitoring program. USDA and DOI are working collaboratively with states to sample wild birds throughout the U.S. for the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). As a result of this expanded testing program, USDA and DOI expect to identify additional cases of common strains of avian influenza in birds, which is not cause for concern.
Thirty five samples were collected directly from the birds and screened for H5 at the Ohio Dept of Agriculture Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. Of those samples, two were sent to USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, for confirmatory testing and one screened by NVSL tested positive for both H5 and N1 subtypes. This does not mean these birds 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.
Fish Beware: VHS a Cold-blooded Killer
15 Oct 2006
The Post-Standard (Posted by Syracuse Online)
J Michael Kelly
State Bureau of Fisheries chief Doug Stang humbly admits he and his colleagues have much to learn about Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, the disease linked with several recent fish die-offs in Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. But Stang told attendees at the New York State Outdoor Writers Association in Plattsburgh that he's quite sure of two things about VHS.
The good news is, the fish disease poses no threat to humans."Let me emphasize that," Stang said during his Oct. 6 presentation at NYSOWA's annual fall conference. "It doesn't affect people. It affects cold-blooded creatures, only." On the other side of the coin, the fish virus credited with killing thousands of tiny round gobies and at least a few large muskellunge in Lake Ontario and the Thousand Islands in May and June is still out there and still mostly a mystery, Stang said.
"It's probably going to get a lot worse before it gets better," he summed up. Stang, who oversees the management of all inland sport fisheries in the state, was a guest speaker at the writers' conference. He described VHS as a disease which primarily attacks trout and other cold-water fish species in European lakes and fish hatcheries. Since it first showed up in the Great Lakes a couple of years ago it has surprised the experts by impacting warm- or cool-water species only, and to date has had no discernable impact on the trout and Pacific salmon which thrive in Lake Ontario.
Protecting Nature Means Saving People,Too
The Paramus Post (Posted by ParamusPost.com)
16 Oct 2006
Scott LaFee
Every year, hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies converge in the forests of pine and oyamel fir in central Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. Some have flown thousands of miles, from as far away as Canada, to get here. They will spend the winter clustered in the trees, returning north with warmer weather and breeding new generations along the way.
On Jan. 12, 2002, an estimated 250 million monarchs died - an astounding quarter-billion insects perished in a single night. Their bodies and wings fluttered to the forest floor, piling up 2 feet or more in some places. The butterflies did not die from disease, poison or predator; they died of exposure.
It was cold that night, but no records were set. The temperatures were nothing the butterflies hadn't experienced in the past, since they have come to this place for countless centuries. The fatal difference that night, according to scientists, was the trees - or lack of them. Excessive logging had decimated the area. The forest had been thinned and fragmented. Without dense stands of timber to serve as a kind of thermal blanket that moderates extremes in temperature, the butterflies could not - and mostly did not - survive.
Nepali Student Tests Positive for Dengue
Gulf Times Newspaper (Posted by gulf-times.com)
15 Oct 2006
A Nepal daily yesterday reported what could be Nepal's first confirmed case of dengue after a Nepali student, who had recently returned from New Delhi, where the mosquito-borne disease has killed at least 25 people, tested positive. Hemant Sapkota, a management student at the capital's Kathmandu College of Management, who recently returned from Delhi, complained of high fever, headache and pain in the neck.
After a blood test, a private diagnostic laboratory in the capital reported the presence of the dengue virus in his blood. Sapkota also contacted the Shukraraj Topical and Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital where the resident dengue specialist, Basudev Pandey, is treating him, Nepal's largest selling daily Kantipur reported. Meanwhile, Nepal's official media said dengue was suspected to be the cause of a death in southern Nepal. Yogendra Thakur, a resident of Tikulim village in Rautahat district, died of fever this week.
Clinical tests pointed at dengue being the cause but further confirmatory tests were not done. Thakur too had recently returned home from neighbouring Bihar state in India. He was said to have been admitted to a private clinic in Sitamarhi district for treatment.
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