Wildlife Disease News Digest

Mysterious Epidemic may be Killing Guinean Chimps
Planet Ark
4 Dec 2006

A mysterious epidemic may be responsible for the disappearance of over half the chimpanzees at a colony in southeast Guinea, one of Africa's most important research sites for the primates, officials said Saturday. Pepe Soropogui, head of the chimpanzee investigation at the Bossou Environmental Research Institute (IREB), said no more than 12 West African chimpanzees remain from a population of around 30 in 2002.

Primate experts are baffled by the dwindling population at Bossou, close to Mount Nimba in the border region with Ivory Coast and Liberia. "There are theories thatsome chimpanzees have contracted a sort of bronchitis or pneumonia probably transmitted by man, but we are not sure because chimpanzees have funeral rites and take away the bodies after death," said Marie Claude Gauthier of the Jane Goodall Institute for wildlife research and conservation.

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Potential Impacts of Bonamia Disease on Non-Native Oyster Still Being Researched [Press Release]
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
5 Dec 2006

Maryland and Virginia officials today announced that recent reports by the news media suggesting that Maryland and Virginia's proposal to introduce the non-native Asian oyster (Crassostrea ariakensis) could fail because of mortalities associated with the oyster parasite, Bonamia sp. are overstated, and based upon incomplete data and analyses.

"While Bonamia is not currently known to be in the Chesapeake Bay, experiments are still being conducted to refine estimates of the salinity tolerance of the Bonamia species that infects C. ariakensis," said Eugene M. Burreson, Professor, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). "Our research suggests that if Bonamia became present in the Bay, the impact would be likely limited to the lower portions of the Bay."

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Demand for Action on Rabies: Councilman Calls for Task Force with Cops to Tackle a Growing Threat
Staten Island Advance
4 Dec 2006
L Schneider

The city Health Department is being slammed for not doing enough to combat the frightening spread of rabies on Staten Island. The borough's North Shore councilman is calling for the agency to join with the Police Department to form an emergency task force on what to do about the potentially lethal disease. Since April 28, a total of 23 raccoons, three skunks and three cats have been found with rabies on Staten Island.

It is the worst outbreak since the early 1990s. In one case, a West Brighton man is undergoing rabies shots as a precaution after being bitten last month by a rabid kitten he found near Clove Lakes Park. "The Department of Health has to do better," said Councilman Michael McMahon, who has sent a letter to the Health Department seeking emergency action.

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Farmers 'May Pay Disease Costs'
BBC News
6 Dec 2006
Photo Courtesy of BBC News

The farming industry in Wales may have to meet the cost of future outbreaks of animal diseases such as foot-and-mouth, without any government compensation. Farming union leaders have already attended government meetings to discuss the idea in principle but say the industry cannot afford the costs. More than 360,000 animals were slaughtered in the 2001 foot-and-mouth epidemic in Wales, at a cost of £3bn.

The assembly government said it was looking at the proposed changes. Farming leaders said they were worried about the implications. "We're very, very concerned because the process is snowballing somewhat," said Gareth Vaughan, president of the Farmers Union of Wales (FUW). "Initially we were talking about the cost of dealing with exotic disease only. "But by today Defra are talking about the cost of dealing with animal health issues in total - and that the industry should pay for the lot."

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Wildlife Can Alert Next Health Threat for Those Watching
KOLD News 13
4 Dec 2006
JD Wallace

Constant contact with the desert, is one reason so many of us live in tucson. Veterinary pathologists meeting here say we should pay close attention to the scenery. "Public awareness of the animals around them, some sort of public vigilance," said Dr. Paul Stromberg, president of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. We've heard time and again to not feed wildlife and to be careful about what contact our pets make.

But seeing what shape these creatures are in can clue us in on what unseen threat they could pose. "A little bit the question is what's out there in the desert that may potentially be a problem for human beings as your population spreads into the desert," Dr. Stromberg said. As civilization expands into previously undeveloped lands, it brings people into contact with wildlife, and potentially their diseases not known about before then.

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Researchers Debate Potential Path of Bird Flu
NPR
5 Dec 2006
R Knox
Photos Courtesy of NPR

Many experts predicted the bird flu would spread to North America this year. But the virus, which has already migrated from Southeast Asia to three other continents since 2003, has not yet reached the United States. Some scientists now say it's not likely to happen the way many expected --- through wild migratory birds --- but instead through the global trade in live poultry. Marm Kilpatrick, a biologist at the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, examined previous migration pathways of the bird-flu strain H5N1 in order to predict its possible path to the Western Hemisphere.

"The two main transmission routes for bird flu are through [feces] and then taking the virus back in when they feed," says Kilpatrick. "And then [it can] also [be transmitted] through infections in the throat." Kilpatrick thinks the virus might get to American waterways through a two-step process, starting with infected poultry shipped to another country in this hemisphere.