Greece Finds Bird Flu Virus in Wild Duck
Agence France Presse (Posted by news.yahoo.com)
17 Nov 2006
Greece said it found bird flu in a wild duck shot by a hunter, adding that more tests were underway to establish whether the virus was the strain that can kill humans. The H5 virus, most of whose sub-types are only lethal to birds, was confirmed in the migratory duck killed in a coastal area of the central prefecture of Fthiotida, the agriculture ministry said in a statement. Samples from the bird will be sent to the EU Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in England to determine whether the virus is in fact H5N1, the highly pathogenic strain that has killed 152 people in the Far East, the Middle East and China since 2003.The relevant European Union authorities have also been informed, the ministry said.
This is the first H5 case reported in Greece since the summer. Earlier this year, the Greek authorities confirmed 33 cases of H5N1 between February and March, all in wild birds. Yet even though no domestic poultry cases turned up, demand for chicken in the country took a serious blow for weeks. Local authorities in Fthiotida have been advised to ban the transport of live poultry near the area where the duck was hunted.
Deer Disease Outbreak Cooled by Cold
The Grand Rapids Press (Posted by mlive.com)
17 Nov 2006
Howard Meyerson
Now that cold weather has nipped at the insect population, state wildlife officials are getting fewer calls about dead deer in Allegan County. The drop-off was expected, once the first frost killed the tiny, flies known as no-see-ums. The insect is known to carry an often fatal viral disease for deer known as epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD. "When all is said and done I expect we will have reports of about 150 animals, but not all of them have EHD," said Tom Cooley, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources' wildlife disease laboratory at Michigan State University. "We tested one just two weeks ago and found no evidence of EHD. Of the six that we have tested so far, only two tested positive."
In August, various Southwest Michigan DNR wildlife staffers began receiving reports about dead deer in or along the Rabbit and Kalamazoo rivers in Manlius and Saugatuck townships. But it wasn't until mid-September that Cooley had a fresh enough sample to confirm EHD's presence. John Lerg, a biologist out of the DNR's Plainwell office, said the outbreak's progression is fairly typical. "We are saying from 50 to 70 deer have died and that compares to other outbreaks we find in professional literature," said Lerg. "One hundred deer would not be uncommon."
Study: Chronic Wasting Disease Spread Through Blood, SalivaJAVMA News
01 Dec 2006
Photo courtesy of Scott Bauer/Dept. of Agriculture
Chronic wasting disease might be passed in the blood and saliva of infected deer, according to a Colorado State University-led study published in the Oct. 6 edition of Science. Researchers say the findings raise new questions about whether the disease can be spread by blood-sucking insects or social contact between animals. Moreover, the evidence suggests that no tissue from an infected animal can be considered free of disease-causing prions. Chronic wasting disease is a degenerative brain disease in cervids characterized by weight loss leading to death.
It was discovered in 1967 in mule deer at a wildlife research facility in Colorado. Today, CWD has been found in free-ranging and captive deer and elk in 14 states and two Canadian provinces. The research team tested the blood, saliva, feces, and urine of CWD-infected deer to determine how the disease is passed between animals. Infectious prions were discovered in the animals' tonsils as soon as three months after exposure to saliva or blood from an infected deer. Scientists have been at a loss as to how animals were infecting one another with the fatal disease agent.
Scientists Predict Next Ebola Outbreak
afrol News
17 Nov 2006
The next Ebola outbreak should be expected to occur "in northern Congo Brazzaville, towards Cameroon and the Central African Republic," according to African scientists that have closely studied the pattern of the deadly disease. They found that Ebola affect many Central African mammals besides humans and that the disease fluctuates with climate variables throughout the Gabon-Congo region, making predictions possible. Sally Lahm has led a decade-long research into the roots and patterns of Ebola outbreaks in Gabon and Congo Brazzaville. Working as a research associate at the Institute for Research in Tropical Ecology in Makokou, Gabon since 1982, she was originally conducting unrelated ecological studies.
But the outbreaks of Ebola virus in humans prompted her to explore how the disease was affecting animal populations in the region. Between 1994 and 2003, she and her team collected reports of animal illness and deaths from wildlife survey teams, villagers, hunters, fishers, loggers, miners, Ebola survivors and families of victims from across Gabon and into north-western Congo Brazzaville. Despite the low probability of finding dead animals in the humid forests that cover most of the region, due to the scavenging by animals and insects and rapid decomposition, Ms Lahm received and verified reports of 397 dead animals. The carcasses, which were found at 35 different sites in Gabon and Congo, included gorillas, chimpanzees, mandrills, bush pigs, porcupines and four species of antelope.
Wildlife Disease Related Journal Articles
EWDA Electronic Journal Blog! - Sharing Recent Wildlife Disease Related Journal Articles
Passage of Chronic Wasting Disease Prion into Transgenic Mice Expressing Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) PrPC - Journal of General Virology [online abstract only]
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