January 24, 2007

Hungary Detects Swine Fever Virus in Wild Boars
Portfolio.hu
23 Jan 2007

Hungary's animal health authorities have detected the swine fever virus in three wild boars in northern Hungary, but they said it may have been caused by vaccination in nearby Slovakia. "Yes, we have found three wild boars in which we found the swine fever virus," Reuters cited Chief Veterinarian Miklós Süth as telling a press conference on Tuesday.

Bulgarian veterinary health authorities announced on 17 January that they had detected an outbreak of swine fever in the northeast of the country and were preparing to slaughter 164 pigs to prevent its spread. The disease caused the death Survey Finds Mercury in Fish in Westof four pigs and ten more animals were also said to be infected at a farm in the town of Smyadovo.




Zoo Vet Centre a Dream Come True

stuff.co.nz
24 Jan 2006
J Ling

Ever wondered how sick zoo animals are treated? Visitors to Auckland Zoo's purpose-built New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine will soon be able to go behind the scenes to find out. "It's a dream come true," says senior vet Richard Jakob-Hoff. "This is going to be a place of discovery that will teach us more about disease and wildlife and allow us to share that information with people."

Construction of the $4.6 million centre started last year and is expected to finish in June. Mr Jakob-Hoff says it will focus more on native species, research and diagnostic work. Purpose-built animal wards will provide temporary homes for sick animals "up to the size of a zebra" and there will be an aviary for under-the-weather birds. Visitors can watch staff do laboratory research and vets perform operations in the surgical room.




Survey Finds Mercury in Fish in West

Casper Star-Tribune
24 Jan 2007
J Barnard

Scientists looking for fish tainted by mercury found them in every fish and every river they sampled across the West, suggesting that industrial pollution generated around the world is likely responsible for at least some of it. The survey of 2,707 fish randomly collected from 626 rivers in 12 states represents the biggest regional sampling yet of mercury in fish in the West, said Spencer A. Peterson, senior research ecologist EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory in Corvallis.

The findings by scientists from the EPA and Oregon State University were reported in this month's issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology and came out of an EPA survey of various environmental factors in rivers conducted between 2000 and 2004. Though the survey found some fish with elevated mercury levels, suggesting a local source such as an old mercury mine, most levels were low, in line with canned tuna found in grocery stores, said Alan T. Herlihy, associate research professor in the OSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

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