Poultry Farms Play Crucial Role in RP Battle vs. Avian Influenza
The Manila Times
27 Feb 2007
K Jalbuena
Area: Philippines
The poultry industry remains the biggest risk factor in the spread of avian influenza and the best protective measure is to encourage culling by providing financial incentives to breeders, World Health Organization officials said on Monday. “About two years ago, there was great concern raised about the possibility of the transmission of the avian influenza virus through the migratory birds,” Peter Cordingley, spokesman of the World Health Organization–Western Pacific Region, said at a roundtable with The Manila Times. “However, experience has shown that the real risk is through infected poultry,” he said. “In countries where there are new outbreaks of the disease, it tends to be traced back to smuggled infected poultry.”
Dr. Jean Olive, WHO-country representative for the Philippines, said countries that do not have a large native poultry population tend to increase stock by importing birds—usually day old chicks—from countries with a large population. “If these chicks come from a country where there is bird flu and one of those chicks happens to be infected, it can infect others,” Olive said. According to the WHO, the highly virulent H5N1 strain of avian influenza has largely been found in three types of migratory birds—geese, swans and ducks. Except for ducks, the migratory route of these birds does not go through the Philippines.
N.D. Elk War Reaches Congress
The Minot Daily News
27 Feb 2007
K Fundingsland
Area: North Dakota, USA
The rapidly changing battlefront in North Dakota’s elk war has reached all the way to Washington, D.C. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced legislation Monday that would allow the National Park Service to use qualified volunteer hunters to thin the elk herd that has outgrown the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The issue moved into the national spotlight last week when the North Dakota Game and Fish Department withdrew from the evaluation process concerning alternative measures to reduce the elk herd as proposed by TRNP. Game and Fish director Terry Steinwand objected to the park’s refusal to consider public hunting as a possible solution.
Ironically, one of the TRNP alternatives called for “hired sharpshooters riding in helicopters.” According to the written proposal, the sharpshooter teams would consist of “qualified federal employees or contractors.” Upon learning of the TRNP plan during a visit to Bismarck last week, Dorgan said “local hunters in pickup trucks” could accomplish the same thing. Gov. John Hoeven also quickly sided with the Game and Fish Department, calling Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and urging him to consult with U.S. Park Service officials regarding the refusal to consider using local hunters to alleviate the overpopulation of elk in TRNP.
Unexplained Illnesses, Deaths Suggest Something’s Fishy in Bay, Rivers
The Bay Journal
Issue: Mar 2007
K Blankenship
Area: Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay and its watershed seem to be tough places to be a fish.
Just consider:
- The majority of adult striped bass in the Bay are infected with mycobacteriosis, a chronic wasting disease.
- Many menhaden in low-salinity areas are afflicted with ulcerative lesions caused by the fungal pathogen, Aphanomyces invadans, which may be lethal.
- Cancerous tumors have been found in brown bullhead catfish and mummichog.
While the cancers have been found primarily in highly contaminated areas, such as the Elizabeth and Anacostia rivers, some have also turned up in the South River, an area not associated with particularly high contaminant levels. - Unexplained fish kills have plagued parts of the Potomac drainage since 2002, primarily in the Shenandoah watershed. During some events, as many as 80 percent of the adult smallmouth bass and redbreast sunfish have died.
E. Coli Bacteria Migrating Between Humans, Chimps in Ugandan Park
University of Illinois at Urbana (Posted by medicalnewstoday.com)
26 Feb 2007
Area: Uganda
Scientists from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana have found that people employed in chimpanzee-focused research and tourism in a park in western Uganda are exchanging gastrointestinal bacteria - specifically Escherichia coli - with local chimpanzee populations. And some of the E. coli strains migrating to chimps are resistant to antibiotics used by humans in Uganda. Their study will appear in the April 2007 issue of Biological Conservation and is available now on the journal's Web site. Other studies have found bacterial exchanges between humans and non-human primates - particularly in areas where the animals are known to frequent garbage piles near human settlements.
But this is the first study to document the exchange of E. coli between humans and chimps in a protected wildlife area. It is also the first to find antibiotic-resistant strains in chimpanzees in Africa. "Antibiotic resistance has traditionally been associated with two factors: indiscriminate and over-prescription of antibiotics by physicians in the developed world and the inclusion of antibiotics in animal feed in the developed world," said Tony L. Goldberg, a professor of veterinary pathobiology and the principal investigator of the study. The new findings, Goldberg said, show that over-the-counter sales of antibiotics for human consumption can also have an impact on wildlife.
Journal Articles of Interest
Assessment of Mercury Concentrations in Small Mammals Collected Near Las Vegas, Nevada, USA [Free Full-Text Available]
Environ Toxicol. 2006 Dec;21(6):583-9
SL Gerstenberger
Cross-Reactive Neuraminidase Antibodies Afford Partial Protection Against H5N1 in Mice and Are Present in Unexposed Humans [Free Full-Text Available]
PLoS Med. 2007 Feb 13;4(2):e59 [Epub ahead of print]
MR Sandbulte et al.
Resistance to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Transgenic Mice Expressing a Naturally Occurring Allelic Variant of Deer Prion Protein [Online Abstract Only]
J Virol. 2007 Feb 21; [Epub ahead of print]
K Meade-White et al.
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