More than 1,000 Mallard Ducks Die along Idaho Creekbed
Associated Press (Posted by SignOnSanDiego.com by the Union-Tribune)
13 Dec 2006
Jesse Harlan Alderman
State wildlife agencies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Wednesday were testing tissue samples from more than 1,000 mallard ducks that are dying in a bizarre cluster along a southeastern Idaho creek bed, hoping to rule out an avian flu outbreak. The ducks mysteriously began dying last week in and around Land Springs Creek, near the remote town of Oakley. Ducks that gather in the area year-round and migratory mallards from Canada were still slowly perishing at the creek, staggering and struggling to breathe before collapsing, said Dave Parrish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game
“It's a mystery,” he said. “I've never seen anything like this in 20 years here. There were dead mallards everywhere – in the water and on the banks. It was odd, they were in a very small area.” Parrish said state wildlife biologists and federal investigators are not ruling out any cause of death. The symptoms – bacterial lesions in the lungs and hemorrhaging in the heart wall – likely point to a bacterial infection, not bird flu, Parrish said.
Cougars Die from Plague
Jackson Hole News&Guide
14 Dec 2006
Cory Hatch
Plague killed two cougars, a mother and her kitten, found in the Gros Ventres in mid-October, University of Wyoming researchers confirmed Wednesday. Another cougar died of plague in the greater Yellowstone area earlier this year, and a fourth cougar, which was part of a Wildlife Conservation Society study, died last year.
Researchers from Beringia South found the dead mother and kitten after picking up a mortality signal on the mother’s radio collar. The adult cougar had been collared as part of a scientific study. The mother was previously healthy and on or about June 1, she gave birth to a litter of three female kittens. Researchers found one kitten dead underneath the mother and one kitten was missing.
Whirling Disease Found in Electric Lake
The Salt Lake Tribune
13 Dec 2006
Brett Prettyman
Whirling disease, the trout malady which disfigures young fish and can lead to death, has been found in Electric Lake on the Wasatch Plateau. When state fisheries biologists found whirling disease in Huntington Creek last year they hoped a dam at the top of the canyon would prevent the spread of the trout parasite into Electric Lake, but it did not stop the spread of the parasite.
Division of Wildlife Resources officials also confirmed that whirling disease has been discovered in the left and right forks of Huntington Creek, but they suspected it was already there when Huntington Creek proper tested positive last May.
Travel Stress Thought to be Devil Death Cause
ABC NewsOnline
14 Dec 2006
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary's curator of life sciences says it is likely a tasmanian devil at the Gold Coast facility died from travel-related stress and not the devastating facial tumour disease.
The devil was one of four dozen sent to interstate zoos from Tasmania, as an insurance policy against the disease. Matt Hingley says stress-related problems are not always immediately apparent.
A Modern Menace: Emerging Infectious DiseasesVision – Life and Health
Fall 2006
Rebecca Sweat
. . . According to WHO, at least 30 new infectious diseases have emerged in the last 20 years, many of which evade traditional therapies and have no cure. With so many deadly pathogens coming on the scene, notes Stohr, “infectious diseases are once again the leading cause of death in the world—something that hasn’t been the case since the pre-antibiotic era of the early 1900s.”
Emerging infectious diseases can be grouped into three categories of causation: viruses that have mutated or genetically recombined to become new strains or novel microbes; viruses that had previously existed only in one part of the world and started appearing in new regions; and viruses that may have existed for millennia but weren’t discovered until recent years.
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