Thin Line of Defense Against Exotic Animal Meat
The Associated Press (Posted by MSNBC.com)
28 Nov 2006
Photos Courtesy of Associated Press
Bird flu, viruses could easily be brought into U.S. by unsuspecting travelers
Wildlife inspector Bryan Landry can spot threats everywhere at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. A backpack carried off a flight from Nigeria contains plastic bags of meat from the bush that could harbor the lethal Ebola virus. Those salted duck eggs from South Korea, a delicacy not easily found here, could carry the dreaded bird flu.
And the exotic birds taped to a passenger’s legs and the pair of monkey paws concealed in a bag could harbor any one of several diseases that jump to humans. Landry and fellow inspectors with the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service are a last line of defense against such risky items before they come across the border, often with unsuspecting people intending only to bring back a taste from home, an exotic pet or a travel memento.
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Think Twice Before Putting Trendy Animals Under Your Tree: Exotic Pets Pose Health Risk
The Associated Press (Posted by The Charlotte Observer)
28 Nov 2006
Margaret Ebrahim and John Solomon
Black market rampant, and little screening done on even legal imports
Exotic animals captured in the wild are streaming into the U.S. 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 as 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 U.S. 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.
UW Applies for Federal Disease Lab
Wisconsin State Journal
29 Nov 2006
David Wahlberg
Scientists would help lead the nation's research on deadly animal diseases at a high-security building near Stoughton if UW-Madison is picked as the site of a new federal lab. But the proposal, at the university's Kegonsa Research Campus in the town of Dunn, faces significant competition: 14 applicants are vying for the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.
It will be operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The lab, to open in 2013 and employ about 400 people, will include space designated Biosafety Level 4 - the highest level, for the most dangerous germs.Such labs are protected by tight security and elaborate ventilation. Scientists working in them usually wear spacesuits hooked up to a special air supply, as depicted in the 1995 movie "Outbreak."
Getting to Bottom of Mysterious Elk Deaths
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle Online
29 Nov 2006
Jennifer Frazer
It wasn't until game warden Benge Brown ran out of ammunition putting down elk that he knew Wyoming had a big problem. It was February 2004, and the Rawlins-based game warden for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department had just returned to the Red Rim, a low red sandstone rise 12 miles west of Rawlins, after spending a few days in Afton dealing with elk getting into haystacks.
Brown had seen just a few elk down with mysterious symptoms before he left for Afton, but he'd thought about them the whole time he was gone, concerned there might be more. One elk down was nothing unusual, but two elk was worrisome. "When I got back, I drove around looking," he said, "and I didn't have to look very far." Dying elk were scattered all over the low rocky country of the Red Rim-Daley Wildlife Habitat Management Area, a reserve created primarily not for elk, but for pronghorn antelope.
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