Chronic Wasting Disease Found near Waukesha County Border
The Associated Press (Posted by The Winona Daily News)
27 Jan 07
White-tailed deer in the Kettle Moraine State Forest’s Southern Unit are being killed by sharpshooters after as many as nine cases of chronic wasting disease were discovered near Waukesha County’s border, the state’s CWD operations supervisor says. Tami Ryan said Thursday the shooters will kill as many free-roaming deer as possible.
Sharpshooters also are being used for the first time at Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo, where they have killed about 50 deer, said state Department of Natural Resources spokesman Greg Matthews. Both efforts began this month after the DNR had relied on hunters to stem the spread of the disease by reducing deer populations in southeast and south-central Wisconsin.
Politicians Address Wildlife Issues
The Daily Graphic
29 Jan 07
A Brown
Provincial leaders attend Manitoba Wildlife Federation convention in Portage la Prairie
. . . Concerns about elk hunting and the potential for disease were also addressed. “I wanted to emphasize that proper stewardship of the wildlife and fishery resources in Manitoba is really essential,” said Gerrard. “When it comes to game ranching ..., we’ve had a real problem recently with animals coming in from an infected area in Saskatchewan to an area around Swan River, and (there is) concern about the introduction of diseases because of game ranching, elk specifically.” This was a hot topic for McFadyen.
“The biggest concern we have is the spread of disease from penned animals to our wild population,” the PC leader said after the talk. “So far, in Manitoba we’ve been fortunate that we haven’t seen any cases take place here, but that’s a risk obviously that exists.” Portage-area hunter Reg Wiebe attended the conference on Friday and said he is also worried about preserving the integrity of the herd. “We have numerous hunters in this area that are into elk hunting and have been very concerned about the ranching situation and the spread of disease,” he said.
Deadly H5N1 may be Brewing in Cats
NewScientist Environment
24 Jan 07
D Mackenzie
Bird flu hasn't gone away. The discovery, announced last week, that the H5N1 bird flu virus is widespread in cats in locations across Indonesia has refocused attention on the danger that the deadly virus could be mutating into a form that can infect humans far more easily. In the first survey of its kind, an Indonesian scientist has found that in areas where there have been outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry and humans, 1 in 5 cats have been infected with the virus, and survived. This suggests that as outbreaks continue to flare across Asia and Africa, H5N1 will have vastly more opportunities to adapt to mammals than had been supposed.
. . . Of these cats, 20 per cent carried antibodies to H5N1. This does not mean that they were still carrying the virus, only that they had been infected - probably through eating birds that had H5N1. Many other cats that were infected are likely to have died from the resulting illness, so many more than 20 per cent of the original cat populations may have acquired H5N1.
Journal Articles of Interest
Spatial spread of an emerging infectious disease: conjunctivitis in House Finches. (free full-text available)
Ecology. 2006 Dec;87(12):3037-46.
PR Hosseini and et al.
Massive outbreak of anthrax in wildlife in the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe (online abstract only)
Vet Rec. 2007 160: 113-118.
SB Clegg and et al
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