Disease Decimates Kansas Buffalo
The Wichita Eagle
28 Nov 2006
Beccy Tanner and Phyllis Jacobs Griekspoor
Nearly one-fourth of the buffalo have died at the state-owned Maxwell Wildlife Refuge, home to one of the oldest surviving wild buffalo herds. A new disease is decimating buffalo herds across the state and has prompted the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to cancel its annual buffalo auction, typically held in mid-November.
The animals are infected with Mycoplasma bovis, a bacterium that causes pneumonia, mastitis and arthritis in cattle. It was first detected in some U.S. cattle in the 1960s. For buffalo, it is especially virulent. "They don't have any prior exposure or resistance," said Cliff Peterson, manager of the Maxwell refuge. "For buffalo, it's pretty lethal."
Imported Wildlife Threatens Americans' Health
The Associated Press (Posted by Lexington Herald-Leader - Kentucky.com)
28 Nov 2006
John Solomon
Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming into the United States by the millions with little or no screening for disease, leaving Americans vulnerable to a virulent outbreak that could rival a terrorist act. Demand for such wildlife is booming as parents try to get their kids the latest pets fancied by Hollywood stars, and zoos and research scientists seek to fill their cages.
More than 650 million critters -- from kangaroos and kinkajous to iguanas and tropical fish -- were imported legally into the United States in the past three years, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Countless more pets -- along with animal parts and meats -- are smuggled across the borders as part of a $10 billion-a-year international black market, second only to illegal drugs.
The Associated Press (Posted by Statesman Journal)
26 Nov 2006
Todd Richmond
Photo Courtesy of The Associated Press
The state's multimillion-dollar efforts to slow chronic wasting disease in its deer herd aren't working, according to a state audit that was released recently. The Legislative Audit Bureau's report found that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had spent nearly $27 million battling the disease since it surfaced in the state in 2002.
The persistence of the disease, and the costs in combatting it, point out the need to keep it out of currently chronic wasting disease-free states such as Oregon. That's why there are prohibitions on importing certain parts of animals brought into Oregon by hunters going out of state. In October alone, Oregon State Police cited five people for bringing in prohibited parts of game animals that were killed in states where the disease has been found.
State Game Officials Enlist Help of Hunters
Richmond Times-Dispatch
27 Nov 2006
A.J. Hostetler
To protect against bird flu, officials may ask to test killed waterfowl
State game officials want help from duck and goose hunters this season to protect Virginians from avian flu. Department of Game and Inland Fisheries employees are scouting wildlife-management areas, popular hunting areas and boat ramps along eastern Virginia's waterways.
Waterfowl hunters may be asked by game officials to allow them to swab the bagged game to test for the highly pathogenic version of H5N1 avian flu, according to Bob Ellis, assistant director of the wildlife division for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Species being sampled include tundra swan, mute swan, snow goose, Atlantic brant and mallards.
Wild Gorillas Carriers Of A SIV Virus Close To The AIDS Virus
Science Daily
22 Nov 2006
In 2005, 40.3 million people in the world, including 25.8 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, were living with HIV. The question of the origin of HIV-1, responsible for the AIDS pandemic, has been stimulating the scientific community for many years. Some months ago, the team of Martine Peeters, director of research at IRD, and Eric Delaporte, director of the mixed research unit UMR 145 jointly involving the IRD and the University of Montpellier 1, showed the chimpanzee subspecies living in the Congo Basin (2) to be the reservoir of HIV-1 virus group M, the source of the world pandemic and that of another, very rare variant, HIV-1 group N.
However, the reservoir of the third HIV-1 group, group O which infects humans (3), remained unidentified up to now. This team announces, in an article in the journal Nature, the discovery of a simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection in wild gorillas. Samples of faeces collected from different communities of gorillas found in the remotest areas of the Cameroon tropical forest were found to contain antibodies against this virus, called SIVgor.
Wildlife Disease Related Journal Article
Anthrax, but Not Bacillus anthracis?
PLoS Pathogens
Okinaka R, et al.
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