Pattern of Human Ebola Outbreaks Linked to Wildlife and Climate
Physorg.com
14 Nov 2006
Photo Courtesy of S. Lahm, UCSD
A visiting biologist at the University of California, San Diego and her colleagues in Africa and Britain have shown that there are close linkages between outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in human and wildlife populations, and that climate may influence the spread of the disease.
The decade-long study, published this month (with a cover date of January) in the journal Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, tracked animal disease outbreaks and human exposure to the Ebola virus in Gabon and adjoining northwestern Republic of the Congo (RoC). The researchers found that many additional wildlife and human populations within and outside of known epidemic zones have been exposed to the virus.
New Research Center To Combat Animal Diseases Affecting People [Press Release]
US Department of State International Information Programs (Posted by USINFO.STATE.GOV)
14 Nov 2006
Charlene Porter
Animal-based microbes cause 75 percent of new human disease, veterinarian says
Avian influenza, HIV/AIDS, ebola hemorrhagic fever, West Nile fever. In recent years these diseases have caused immeasurable misery and alarm in the international health community. They also share a common origin. They are zoonoses -- diseases caused by pathogens that have moved from animal populations to humans.
“If you look at the significant epidemics over the last 20 to 25 years, there’s certainly a preponderance of animal disease going to people,” said Dr. Lonnie King, acting director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne and Enteric Diseases (diseases caused by microorganisms in the intestines), a newly organized unit at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Tracking Disease After the Kill: Hunters Play Key Role in Surveillance of Wildlife Bacteria, Ailments
Jackson Hole News & Guide
15 Nov 2006
Cory Hatch
It’s a blustery day on the elk refuge, and Game and Fish biologist Jill Miller is kneeling in the snow, scalpel in hand, cutting through the neck of a freshly killed elk. She cuts away the hair, exposes skeletal muscles along the throat, makes an incision behind each hinge of the jaw, and plucks out two white, bean-shaped retropharyngeal lymph nodes. She places the nodes in a round, clear-plastic container; the whole procedure takes less than five minutes.
In a living, breathing elk, these two little blobs of tissue play an essential role in protecting the animal from disease by filtering out and destroying viruses and bacteria. That makes them an ideal place to look for the protein prions that indicate chronic wasting disease. Miller will send the tissue, along with vials of blood for brucellosis screening, to a lab in Laramie where researchers will test the samples.
Montana Expands Hunt for Yellowstone Bison
The Associated Press (Posted by The New York Times)
13 Nov 2006
The hunt for the bison that leave Yellowstone National Park opens on Wednesday, with Montana providing nearly triple the number of the licenses that were available last year. Shane Colton of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission said the increase, to 140 licenses, was a step toward better management of the bison herd.
Buffalo Field Campaign, a group that opposes any hunting of Yellowstone bison, said the license increase made a bad idea worse. Montana’s first bison hunt in 15 years took place last fall and winter. Hunting this year will be staggered over a three-month span that ends Feb. 15. The license increase and its focus on bison cows make the hunt more of a herd management tool, Mr. Colton said.
Bovine TB Problems Remain in Northeastern Michigan
The Associated Press (Posted by Star-Telegram.com)
14 Nov 2006
John Flesher
Bovine tuberculosis has been detected on a private deer ranch in Michigan for the first time in nine years as efforts continue to have most of the state declared free of the disease, officials said Tuesday. A deer tested positive for bovine TB last month on the ranch in Montmorency County, said Bridget Patrick, coordinator of the state program aimed at eradicating the lung disease. It is fatal for animals but it is different strain than the tuberculosis that usually infects humans.
The ranch, a private hunting establishment, has between 150 and 200 deer. The entire herd will be killed, Patrick said. The only other discovery of bovine TB on a private deer ranch in Michigan happened in 1997, she said. It's uncertain how the deer became infected, but the likely cause is contact with a wild animal carrier - perhaps a possum or raccoon, she said.
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