Dead Birds Cause Health Concerns in Austin, Texas
The Associated Press (Posted by kcbs.com)
08 Jan 2007
Police shut down 10 blocks of businesses in the heart of downtown early Monday after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets, but officials said preliminary tests showed no dangerous chemicals in the air. As many as 60 dead pigeons, sparrows and grackles were found overnight along Congress Avenue, a main route through downtown. No human injuries or illnesses were reported. ``We do not feel there is a threat to the public health,'' said Adolfo Valadez, the medical director for Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services.
He said preliminary air-quality tests showed no dangerous chemicals and the area should reopen around noon. U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said officials had no credible information to suggest any imminent threat to the city. On Congress Avenue, just outside the state Capitol, emergency workers donned yellow hazardous-material suits Monday morning, and dozens of fire trucks and ambulances were parked nearby. Workers were testing for any sort of environmental contaminant or gas or chlorine leaks that might have cause the bird deaths, said police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz. At least one bird carcass was being tested locally for other possible causes, and other carcasses were shipped to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Texas A&M University.
University Studies FMD for Prevention Plan
The Prairie Star
08 Jan 2007
University of California-Davis researchers have launched a nationwide research study aimed at protecting the livestock industry from the devastating consequences of foot-and-mouth disease. The Center for Animal Disease Modeling and Surveillance (CADMS) in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC-Davis is coordinating the study. Livestock producers throughout the nation have been asked to participate in an on-line survey to gather data on animal movements and husbandry practices that will be used in a simulation model to predict the duration and magnitude of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak, as well as determine the best strategies for containment. This project is being conducted in collaboration with the National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Diseases (FAZD) and is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is one of the most highly contagious diseases affecting cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, swine, sheep, goats and deer. In 2001, an outbreak of FMD in the United Kingdom resulted in catastrophic economic losses exceeding $15 billion. As a result, at least six million animals were slaughtered. In the United States, the economic impact of an outbreak is estimated to be as high as $13 billion and every segment of the livestock industry would be severely affected.
HK Controls Tightened after Bird Flu Verified
Finding Purebred Bison A Challenge for Those Trying To Bring Herd BackNew York Times News Service (Posted by theday.com)
09 Jan 2007
Author Jim Robbins
Photo courtesy of Jim Robbins
Breeding with Cattle has Made Animals More Susceptible to Disease
The animals certainly looked like bison, with the characteristic humps and beards. But just to make sure, a pickup truck slowly rolled up to them, and a bison wrangler shot a drug-filled dart into one of several calves. A few minutes later the anesthetized animal was on the ground, grunting and squirming. Several men warily moved in to hobble the animal and take blood samples.
This bison wrangling was being done to test the genetics of a herd of 39 animals that is being used by the American Prairie Foundation as seed stock to re-create a large-scale native prairie landscape. The researchers want animals with only pure bison genes, which are not so easy to find. “The majority of public herds have some level of hybridization with cattle,” said Kyran Kunkel, a World Wildlife Federation biologist who is doing the sampling. “You can't see any difference visually.
Spectre of SARS Looms Again as Banned Civets Return to Chinese Menu
CanWest News Service; Vancouver Sun (Posted by canada.com)
08 Jan 2007
Miro Cernetig
The scorpion ladies are still at their stalls, guarding plastic barrels seething with hundreds of black and grey scorpions, all waiting to be plucked out with tweezers and dipped into a hotpot or roasted before being eaten. So are the carp sellers, the butchers, with hunks of unidentified meat hanging from hooks in the open air, and the usual pet shop stalls, selling a menagerie of puppies, goldfish and kittens to the residents of this southern Chinese city. Four years after it became infamous as the possible source of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS that killed 774 people worldwide, including 44 in Ontario, China's Qingping market remains open for business. But officially there's something you can no longer find: the wild animals, from civets to monitor lizards to leopards that were once sold to restaurants, to satisfy diners in this prosperous Chinese city eager for an exotic delicacy.
``We don't have such animals any longer,'' says Ya Lijuan, using a stick to stir her nest of scorpions, on sale for about $1 apiece with their stingers cut off. ``We are not allowed.'' Yet, if you know where to look, exotic wildlife which experts believe can sometimes create a dangerous bridge for viruses to travel between animal and human is still ready for the hotpot. More worrying to health officials is that civets believed to be the source of the SARS outbreak are again turning up in cages in Guangzhou's alleys and animal warehouses, all out of sight of police and health officials but ready to be cooked in the restaurants that continue to sell wildlife. That became clear last month when officials reported finding more than 100 wild animals destined for the dinner table, including 98 ferret badgers and a few dozen others that weren't identified.
Surveillance for West Nile Virus in Clinic-admitted Raptors, Colorado (free full-text available)
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2007 Feb;13(02):[Epub ahead of print]
N Nemeth et al.
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