Zoo Workers Try to Slow Spread of Fungus
Yahoo News
18 Dec 2006
Milwaukee County Zoo workers are trying to help scientists slow the spread of a fungus that has killed millions of frogs and expunged species. Chytrid has moved rapidly through the frog population in the Caribbean and Central America, killing nearly every croaker who contracts it. Scientists have been unable to stop the spread of disease even as amphibians' deaths tip ecosystems out of balance.
At the Milwaukee County Zoo, three workers are collecting, disinfecting and housing a few frogs who have survived. They hope that the frogs will someday be able to repopulate decimated areas. Meanwhile, scientists are racing to answer basic questions about the fungus, including where it came from and how it spreads.
CWD Found in Alberta Deer
Vermilion Standard
19 Dec 2006
T Seraphim
The discovery of two cases of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Alberta underlines the importance of hunters submitting deer heads for testing, says an official with Alberta Fish and Wildlife. “One of them is in the area we were working last year,” which is north of Medicine Hat, noted information officer Lyle Fullerton.
The other case was found in an area north and west of Edgerton. “That’s a new case,” Fullerton stated, adding it marks the first time the disease has been discovered in a northern region. “In all likelihood it’s an animal that got through the surveillance (of earlier years) and was shot by a hunter,” he stated.
Avian Flu Watch in S.C. : Officials on Lookout for DiseaseTheState.com
22 Dec 2006
J Ryan
In a marsh-side shelter in the A.C.E. Basin wildlife refuge, with shotgun blasts and quacks sounding off in the distance, state biologists and wildlife rangers drank coffee and killed time. The hunters nearby killed ducks, enjoying a Friday morning sunset in the marsh ponds and helping protect against an influenza outbreak.
This fall, wildlife officials started collecting 1,300 samples from waterfowl and shorebirds, many of them from the animals killed during state-monitored hunts in refuges. The field tests are part of a nationwide “early detection system” for dangerous strains of the avian influenza, said Noel Myers, state director of a wildlife health division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Stansbury Park Residents Urged to Stop Feeding Ducks, Geese
21 Dec 2006
Tooele Transcript-Bulletin
A Long
County health and wildlife officials, as well as longtime residents of Stansbury Park, are crying foul over a tendency on the part of newcomers to regularly feed the wild ducks and geese on Stansbury Lake. Feeding the birds causes them to congregate unnaturally, spreading disease not only in wild waterfowl populations but also potentially to humans. "That's how avian flu will probably get here," said Lindon Greenhalgh, Tooele County agricultural extension agent.
There are no reports of the deadly strain of avian influenza virus in Utah yet, but it's possible some wild birds, which carry the virus in their intestines, could arrive in the state and infect domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks and turkeys. While avian influenza usually does not infect humans, more than 200 confirmed cases of human infection with "bird flu" have been reported since 2004 & mainly in Southeast Asia. Most cases of avian influenza in humans are thought to have resulted from direct contact with infected live poultry.
Journal Articles of Interest
Parasites of Free-Ranging Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta pigra) from Belize and Mexico [online abstract only]
Am J Primatol. 2006 Nov;68(11):1089-97
SK Vitazkova and SE Wade
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