Del. on Guard for Avian Flu: Scientists Out in Force Statewide in Effort to Identify Deadly Strain
The News Journal (Posted by delawareonline.com)
16 Dec 2006
Hiran Ratnayake
Photo courtesy of Bob Herbert
In the fight against avian flu, these are Delaware's front lines: A makeshift field testing site and a high-security lab at the University of Delaware. In an otherwise empty Little Creek parking lot, a researcher is taking samples from freshly killed ducks. Those samples are sent to a university lab where they undergo a battery of high-tech tests. It's all part of a national testing program in which wildlife biologists and virologists will test 100,000 samples from migratory birds this year.
In Delaware alone, 3,300 birds will be tested for the disease. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will screen the majority of these samples, looking for an H5N1 strain that is highly pathogenic, meaning is has a strong capability to cause disease. That strain has killed 154 people in Asia and raised fears of a global pandemic. For Delaware, which is spending $430,000 on testing -- more than all but one other state -- the stakes are high.
Edgerton-area Deer Tests Positive for CWD
Meridian Booster
18 Dec 2006
John B. Spigott
An Alberta Fish and Wildlife official is concerned with the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a deer west of Edgerton; the first positive case to come out of the wildlife management unit which encompasses Edgerton and Chauvin. The infected deer from the Edgerton area is one of two new cases announced by Alberta Sustainable Resource Development late last week, and comes from one of the wildlife management units where head submission from harvested deer was deemed mandatory by officials at the beginning of the hunting season. The female mule deer was taken west of Edgerton and was confirmed positive on Dec. 8; as was a male mule deer from the southern portion of the province in the Empress area, west of the Red Deer River.
“The one down south comes from very near the area where we found a cluster of positives last year down in the Empress area,” said Lyle Fullerton, communications officer for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. “That case fell within the 10-kilometre area of concern we had down there, but the new one up north is one of fairly significant concern for us.” Fullerton says the new case in the Edgerton area falls about 30 kilometres from the Saskatchewan border, and although Alberta Fish and Wildlife has been testing in the Chauvin area for two winters, this is the only positive reported from that wildlife management unit.
Concentration of Natural Fungus May Have Killed MallardsSunValleyonline.com
15 Dec 2006
Gary Stivers
Photo courtesy of MSNBC
The sudden death of 2,500 wild mallard ducks near Oakley, ID may have resulted from their exposure to aspergillus fungus, a pathogen found growing on dead leaves, stored grain, compost piles, or in other decaying vegetation, Reuters News has reported. The fungus can attack humans with impaired health, but the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality has found no humans affected in the region around Oakley. The National Library of Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health, notes that "although most people are frequently exposed to aspergillus, infections caused by it such as a pneumonia or fungus ball (aspergilloma) are rare," adding only that "people with predisposing factors (asthma, cystic fibrosis, etc.) should try to avoid environments where this fungus is found if possible."
The behavior of the fungus matches the damage done the ducks –hemorrhaging in heart muscle, bacterial lesions in their lungs. Such a large dieoff of wild ducks suggests they encountered a large concentration of the aspergillus fungus somewhere near Oakley. Investigations by DEQ and IDFG have yet to find any such concentration. IDFG Jerome region manager Dave Parrish Thursday told the Associated Press every mallard in a radius of several miles of Oakley has died – 2,500 and perhaps a few more- but no other bird species have been affected and no other biotic communities in the water or in the riparian environment alongside Land Springs Creek were disturbed.
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