World: Tracking Killers That Know No Borders
Newhouse News Service (Posted by SiberNews)
9 Oct 2006
Amy Ellis Nutt
Her skin was blistering, her gums were bleeding, and her urine was the color of rust. Delirious with fever, lying in isolation at the Brownsville hospital, Norma Santoy told her husband she felt possessed by a "mosquito spirit" that had stolen her brain.
A week earlier, a rash and intense back pain had brought the 33-year-old mother of two to her childhood doctor over the border in Matamoros, Mexico.
He told her it probably was dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus common to tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Matamoros, only a few hundred yards from Brownsville across the Rio Grande, had experienced annual dengue outbreaks for the past decade. There is no cure, no treatment, he said; they would hope for a mild case.
Within days, however, Santoy's condition worsened and she was hospitalized back in Texas, where she told an American physician about the diagnosis in Mexico. "There is no dengue in the U.S.," the doctor responded. Santoy, who had not traveled outside Texas in the weeks before becoming ill, wanted to believe him. But each hour the sound of the mosquito spirit grew louder, and her body weaker.
Fungus Blamed for Wash. Porpoise Deaths
The Associated Press (Posted by CBS News)
6 Oct 2006
A microscopic fungus native to Australia and blamed for the death of people and animals in British Columbia is now linked to the deaths of porpoises and at least one cat in Washington state. Necropsies have that revealed cryptococcus gattii, first detected in the region on Vancouver Island in 1999, was the cause of death in six porpoises and a cat in the state, Washington's former public health veterinarian, Almira Jane Leslie, told The Herald of Everett.
The cat that died and two others that were infected with the fungus last year were in Whatcom County, which borders on British Columbia, and the porpoises were among 25 that have died in Washington state and British Columbia since 1999, Leslie said. Except for a few isolated cases in animals in aquariums, doctors and veterinarians said it was the first time the fungus, which is invisible to the naked eye, has been documented in the United States.
It is typically found in eucalyptus trees in the tropics of Australia but also grows on other trees and can drift or be blown into water as leaves dry out. Since the fungus was discovered in Canada it has been blamed for the death at least four people, all in British Columbia.
Anthrax in Chobe
The Republic of Botswana
10 Oct 2006
At least 143 wild animals have so far died from anthrax in and around the Chobe National Park. The number is made up, among others, of 70 buffaloes, 37 zebras, 23 elephants. Other species that had been affected included impala, lechwe, kudu, baboon honey, honey badge, roan antelope, sable antelope and water.
Dr Lucas Rutina and Dr Nlingisisi Babayane from the wildlife department told heads of departments in a meeting recently that the disease was spreading. They said carcasses of zebras were concentrated around Simwaza near Ngoma border gate while those of buffaloes were between Ihaba and Serondela camping sites in the Chobe National Park.
Dr Rutina expressed fear of cross border infections as most of the animals die on the Namibian side. He said anthrax was endemic and impossible to vaccinate wild animals against it. The only possibility with vaccination was with wild animals in ranches, as well as wild rare species as they moved in small numbers and could be found concentrated in one area.
Bovine Tuberculosis Found in 6th Minnesota HerdThe Associated Press (Posted by KTTC)
9 Oct 2006
Photo Courtesy of KTTC
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health says a two-year-old cow tested positive for it. The animal was part of a Roseau County herd that had shared a fenceline with the herd where the outbreak was first found.
The six affected herds were all in Roseau and Beltrami counties. The newly infected herd had fewer than 30 animals -- with little movement in or out of the herd. The board says cattle will be destroyed and the farmer compensated with federal funds.
Linda Glaser -- the senior veterinarian on the board -- says there is little threat to consumers. Any milk would be pasteurized, and infected meat would be screened out of the food chain by visual inspections.
Your Country Needs You - to Halt Relentless March of the Grey Squirrels
The Scotsman
10 Oct 2006
James Kirkup
Photo Courtesy of The Scotsman
The call has gone out to volunteers to take up arms against a cross-border invasion of pox-ridden grey squirrels that could wreak untold havoc among Scotland's reds. Nature groups, scientists and local councils in northern England are warning that grey squirrels carrying a virus deadly to their red cousins are continuing their seemingly inevitable spread north, this time threatening to open up a new front on the eastern side of the Borders.Should the diseased greys breach the makeshift defences being thrown in their path, experts say Scotland's iconic reds, believed to number around 120,000, could all be doomed. The Southern Uplands Partnership, which helps oversee the wild areas of the Borders, is so concerned about the cross-Border invasion that it has hired two new rangers to shoot and trap marauding greys.
But the partnership accepts that its two full-time marskmen will not be enough to turn the tide of battle on their own, and is urging locals and visitors alike to report any sightings of grey squirrels on the Scottish side of the Border. At the heart of the struggle is squirrel fibroma, a viral disease which produces multiple tumours on the skin of carriers.
Area Bat Incidents Leave Some Curious
The Houston Chronicle
10 Oct 2006
Cindy Horswell
Loss of habitat, lingering humidity may draw colonies
Members of the school choir walk past orchestra director Michael Jones' classroom humming the theme song to Batman. Other students ask to see his rabies tags. But about three weeks after he flipped on the light in his classroom at Katy's Mayde Creek High School and a bat bit him on the head, the jokes are starting to get old. So, too, are the weekly rabies shots.
Bat bites usually are rare in the Houston area, and deaths from rabies are rarer still. But after an Humble teenager was infected by a rabid bat and died in May, the tiny, furry mammals are making their presence felt. The teen's encounter with a bat is one of more than a dozen that have recently achieved notoriety. At least five people have reported being bitten.
Hundreds of bats have been discovered in apartment buildings and schools. Rabid bats are being found beneath football bleachers and in private yards. The Houston lab that checks for rabies has been overwhelmed by the number of bats being brought in for testing.
Public Requested to Watch Wild Birds North Thompson Star/Journal
9 Oct 2006
Photo Courtesy of North Thompson Star/Journal
The Government of Canada and the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre are reminding Canadians to report findings of dead wild birds for disease testing. Canada launched its second annual survey to monitor the many strains of avian influenza naturally present in wild bird populations in May, 2006.
An important component of this program is testing of dead birds, which depends on a significant level of public participation and vigilance. Anyone noticing dead birds - particularly waterfowl such as ducks and geese or significant numbers of dead birds in one location - should report these findings and avoid touching the birds.
Findings of dead birds should be reported to the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre at 1-866-544-4744 or http://wildlife1.usask.ca. People reporting birds will be directed to the proper provincial or territorial authority. Viruses circulating in wild birds generally pose low risks to human health.
Bird Flu Found in Pigs in Indonesia's Bali
Reuters
9 Oct 2006
The H5N1 bird flu virus has infected pigs on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Monday. "There were two pigs that were infected by bird flu in Bali. These were old cases that happened last July," Musni Suatmodjo, agriculture ministry director of animal health, told Reuters.
Koran Tempo newspaper had reported on the weekend that a team from the veterinary faculty at Udayana University had discovered avian influenza infected two pigs in the regencies of Gianyar and Tabanan in Bali. It was not clear if the pigs died. Pigs are a concern because they are susceptible to many of the viruses that infect humans.
Swines can act as mixing vessels in which genetic material from avian flu viruses can mix with human influenza viruses, potentially producing new and deadly strains for which humans have no immunity. I Gusti Putu Suwandi, head of the Tabanan agriculture office, said there have not been new cases of avian influenza in the area since July.
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