Wildlife Disease News Digest

Satellite Observation Tracks Avian Flu
University of New Hampshire (Posted on ScienceDaily)
20 Nov 2006

An international, interdisciplinary team of researchers led by professor Xiangming Xiao of the University of New Hampshire is taking a novel scientific approach in an attempt to understand the ecology of the avian influenza, develop better methods of predicting its spread, and provide an accurate early warning system.

Xiao and colleagues were recently awarded $1.55 million for a four-year project funded by the U.S. National Institutes for Health (NIH) as part of the Ecology of Infectious Diseases (EID) Program jointly sponsored with the U.S. National Science Foundation. The EID program supports research projects that develop quantitative analysis and modeling capacity for better understanding the relationship between man-made environmental change and transmission of infectious agents.

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EPA Finds Lead at a High Level in Animal from Ford Dump Site
NorthJersey.com
21 Nov 2006
Jan Barry

Investigators have found a high level of lead in a squirrel tested during a study of wildlife at Ford Motor Co.'s former toxic-waste dump in Ringwood. That discovery, announced Monday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, prompted the agency to widen its testing of wildlife for hazardous contaminants that may have leached from paint sludge Ford dumped at the former iron mining area in the 1960s and 1970s.

"We are now evaluating how to expand the study for the types of animals and how many to sample to get a better handle on what's going on," said Ben Barry, an EPA spokesman. The EPA began testing some area wildlife last month at the request of residents and their attorneys, who are suing Ford for injuries they claim to their health from toxic substances -- including lead, arsenic, PCBs, benzene and other chemicals -- in the paint waste.

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Global Warming Said Killing Some Species
The Associated Press (Posted by Yahoo.News)
21 Nov 2006
Seth Borenstein

Animal and plant species have begun dying off or changing sooner than predicted because of global warming, a review of hundreds of research studies contends. These fast-moving adaptations come as a surprise even to biologists and ecologists because they are occurring so rapidly. At least 70 species of frogs, mostly mountain-dwellers that had nowhere to go to escape the creeping heat, have gone extinct because of climate change, the analysis says. It also reports that between 100 and 200 other cold-dependent animal species, such as penguins and polar bears are in deep trouble.

"We are finally seeing species going extinct," said University of Texas biologist Camille Parmesan, author of the study. "Now we've got the evidence. It's here. It's real. This is not just biologists' intuition. It's what's happening." Her review of 866 scientific studies is summed up in the journal Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. Parmesan reports seeing trends of animal populations moving northward if they can, of species adapting slightly because of climate change, of plants blooming earlier, and of an increase in pests and parasites.

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