Endangered Primates Harbour Fewer Parasites
NewScientist.com
08 Feb 2007
A Pearson
Primates threatened with extinction harbour fewer parasites than their non-threatened counterparts, a new study shows. It could leave the most vulnerable more susceptible to infectious disease, the researchers say. Many primate species around the world are in danger of disappearing. Conservation efforts typically focus on habitat loss and poaching, but disease can also pose a danger, especially to populations already in trouble. In particular, outbreaks of Ebola virus are pushing Africa’s remaining gorillas and chimps to the brink of extinction.
Ecologist Sonia Altizer at the University of Georgia in Athens, US, and colleagues wondered if there was a correlation between the diversity of parasites that a species hosts and its status on the Red List of threatened species published by the World Conservation Union. The team surveyed the data from hundreds of studies with documented cases of primate infection with viruses, bacteria, protozoa, worms and insects.
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Cow from S.D. Found to have Tuberculosis: Case is First in More than 35 Years
ArgusLeader.com
9 Feb 2007
B Shouse
Area: South Dakota
Tuberculosis has been found in a South Dakota cow for the first time in more than 35 years. State Veterinarian Sam Holland said testing is under way to determine if the bovine disease has spread, and the economic threat is still unclear. If more than two herds are found to be infected, the state could lose its tuberculosis-free status.
That could cost producers several dollars a head for additional testing, slow down the cattle trade and hurt the state's reputation. But, Holland said, "we're far from that at this point." The cow that tested positive was sold by a feedlot in southeast South Dakota to a slaughter plant in Wisconsin. The plant detected lesions on the cow's lungs in August, but a follow-up test was negative. Then a third test came up positive, leading to a quarantine of the South Dakota herd, Holland said.
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Bernard Matthews Faces ‘Illegal’ Imports Inquiry
Times Online
9 Feb 2007
V Elliott (Countryside Editor)
Area: England
Bernard Matthews is under investigation by the Government amid concerns that the company has imported poultry from inside an avian flu exclusion zone in Hungary, it emerged last night. The company, Britain’s largest turkey producer, is also being investigated for breaking EU hygiene regulations by leaving processed poultry outside sheds on its food processing site at Suffolk, where a lethal strain of bird flu was detected last week, according to senior Whitehall sources.
Another three of the units of the 22 at the Bernard Matthews farm in Holton, Suffolk, have tested positive for H5N1, it emerged last night, raising fears that the virus was more entrenched than originally hoped. Government scientists will be looking at establishing how the virus spread from hut to hut, or whether all four huts suffered separate, independent infections from the same source. The Government has found that the strain of the virus in both countries may well be identical. If the imported birds were infected with the H5N1 strain, this virus could easily have been picked up by wild birds and rats, which may have contaminated the chicks in one of the 22 sheds on the site at Holton.
Elk Shot in Paradise Valley had Disease Often Carried by Wolves
Associated Press (Posted by KPVI/DT – NBC News Channel 6)
07 Feb 2007
Area: Montana
A retired Montana state game warden shot an elk outside Yellowstone National Park last fall, that carried a tapeworm disease that can be transmitted by wolves. State officials are trying to determine if the elk contracted the disease from a wolf, or if it came from a coyote or a dog, which can also carry the tapeworm.
A group that wants wolf numbers drastically reduced outside Yellowstone seized on the incident as further evidence of the danger wolves pose to humans, livestock and other wildlife. Mel Frost is a spokeswoman for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. She says her agency isn't concerned about transmission to the public, because the disease is hard to contract and does not spread between humans.
Honey Bee Die-off Alarms Beekeepers
Discovery News
5 Feb 2007
L O'Hanlon
Area: North America
Something is wiping out honey bees across North America and a team of researchers is rushing to find out what it is. What’s being called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has now been seen in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and way out in California. Some bee keepers have lost up to 80 percent of their colonies to the mysterious disorder.
"Those are quite scary numbers," said Dennis vanEngelsdorp, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s lead apiarist. Whatever kills the bees targets adult workers which die outside the colony — with few adults left inside, either alive or dead. The disorder decimates the worker bee population in a matter of weeks.
Park Service Plan Fights Deer Disease
Herald-Mail.com
Feb 8 2007
Area: Eastern United States
The National Park Service is developing a plan to respond to the potential threat of chronic wasting disease to white-tailed deer, according to a park service press release. The purpose of the plan is to develop a range of strategies for the detection of and initial response to the disease in white-tailed deer at Antietam and Monocacy national battlefields.
The disease has not been detected in Maryland but has been detected in West Virginia within a 60-mile radius of several national parks, according to the release. Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease that affects captive and free-ranging deer, causing brain lesions that result in progressive weight loss, behavioral changes and eventually death, according to the release.
Journal Article(s) of Interest
Hantaan virus infection among human and rat populations in Alexandria (online abstract only)
J Egypt Public Health Assoc. 1996;71(3-4):213-28.
MM Baddour and et al.
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