'Complete Change' as Welsh Assembly Ponders Badger Cull to Combat Bovine TB
Farmers Weekly Interactive
19 Mar 2007
Area: Wales, United Kingdom
The Welsh Assembly has taken a major step towards ordering local badger culls to combat bovine tuberculosis. According to one source within the assembly walls, officials and politicians are talking of a complete change in attitude towards a cull in wildlife. And the assembly's advisory body, the Bovine TB Action Group, has announced it will visit the Republic of Ireland in April to examine its culling strategy. The group will report back in June after the local elections have taken place in the principality in May and recommend action to the first minister in the assembly.
The renewed activity follows the Welsh Found Dead Badger Survey. It found up to 26% of badgers carried the disease in some counties and that the strain of TB found, matched the strain prevalent in cattle in the local area. Wales' chief vet Christianne Glossop said it could not be determined whether the disease had originated with the cattle or the badgers. But Dr Glossop said diseased badgers were raising as many as four disease-carrying litters before the dams eventually died underground.
Is West Nile Here to Stay? Researchers Find Mosquitoes Can Transmit Deadly Virus to Their Offspring
The News-Times
19 Mar 2007
R Miller
Area: Connecticut, USA
It's a new sign of spring in Connecticut -- virus-laden mosquitoes emerging from their winter quarters into the sunshine, hungry for their first blood meal, hot to spread disease. That's a recent discovery of researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, who have found that female mosquitoes of one species in the state -- Culex pipiens -- are able to transmit West Nile virus to their eggs. At least a few of those mosquitoes are born carrying the virus. When they feed in spring, they pass on the virus. "It solidifies the general hypothesis we've believed in -- that the virus overwinters in the mosquitoes," said Theodore Andreadis, the experiment station entomologist who leads the state's mosquito-monitoring program.
"It fills in another piece of the puzzle." The discovery is further evidence that the West Nile virus will not be fading from the scene anytime soon. In 2006, doctors diagnosed nine human cases of West Nile infection in Connecticut, with one fatality. Nationally, there were 4,256 people infected with the virus and 165 deaths.
Study: Prions Likely More Mobile in Alkaline Soils
University of Wisconsin - Madison
19 Mar 2007
Area: Madison, WI USA
Prions, the rogue proteins that cause chronic wasting disease and similar maladies, may be more mobile in soil that is more alkaline, suggests a new study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. That finding has implications for the safe disposal of carcasses of animals infected with chronic wasting disease, "mad cow" disease, scrapie and other prion diseases. Prions from those carcasses can remain infectious in the soil for at least three years. Soil alkalinity varies considerably but can be relatively high in older landfills, especially if lime is spread on the carcasses to speed decomposition. The study is reported in the April 15 issue of the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
The UW-Madison research team found that as alkalinity increases, prions are less likely to adhere to particles of quartz, a common soil mineral, and are therefore expected to be more mobile, explains Joel Pedersen, an assistant professor of soil science. Movement of prions in the soil could be a good or bad thing, depending on the situation, Pedersen explains. For example, if they move away from the surface, they're less likely to be ingested by animals. "Those that remain near the surface would more accessible to animals and might therefore lead to the spread of chronic wasting," he points out.
Foodborne Illness, Fatal, Boar - Nepal: Trichinellosis Suspected, Request for Information - Archive Number 20070319.0962
International Society for Infectious Disease - ProMED-mail
19 Mar 2007
Area: Kathmandu, Nepal
A person has died and 9 others are in serious condition because of an unidentified disease at Rel Village of Kailapalmandau, in Dadeldhura district. The disease has affected many other people. A 31-year-old woman died of the disease on the way to Nepalgunj Medical Hospital (NMH), said Dr. Arun Budha posted at the local Team Hospital. The local hospital suspected that the patients fell sick after eating the meat of a wild boar. They presented symptoms of muscle pain, fever, respiratory problems, and swelling of hands and legs.Dr. Budha said that the Team Hospital was unable to reach any conclusion about the disease.
Some patients are in serious condition and the number of patients is increasing every day. There are 2 doctors in the District Health Office (DHO) but only one of them is handling the cases. Bir Bahadur Rawal, acting officer of the DHO, said that they had informed the Department of Health Services (DHS) about the situation. A 2-member team of health assistants reached the area on 16 Mar 2007 and started treating the patients.
USDA Making Stand Against Rabies
Tribune-Review
20 Mar 2007
M Cronin
Area: United States
Like a special agent in a movie, Rob Puskas uses an array of electronic equipment to track down his targets. But after locating his quarry -- which often hides under sheds, behind fences or beneath porches -- Puskas, 25, a U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services technician, leaves them alone. His aim is not to kill the 32 radio-collared raccoons he tracks near Ligonier, Westmoreland County, but to monitor their movements to help corral rabies. "My job is to determine where raccoons are traveling most," Puskas said.
The potentially deadly rabies virus is concentrated in states along the Eastern Seaboard, where rabid raccoons -- the disease's primary carriers -- are walled off by the Appalachian Mountains and other natural barriers. But rabies could burst through, so scientists have established lines of defense, with Western Pennsylvania serving as a major front. Pennsylvania, with its ridges and valleys, is an ideal state to make a stand against the disease's advance, said USDA spokeswoman Brie German. The topography is a primary reason federal officials have selected Pennsylvania as one of the first states where they hope to eradicate raccoon rabies.
DNR Has Killed 117 Deer at Devil's Lake State Park
Portage Daily Register (Posted by wiscnews.com)
20 Mar 2007
Area: Baraboo, WI USA
Department of Natural Resources sharpshooters have downed 117 deer at Devil's Lake State Park this winter in an effort to stamp out Chronic Wasting Disease in the area, and of those, seven have tested positive for the fatal brain disease, Department of Natural Resources Regional Director Lloyd Eagan said in a visit to Baraboo on Monday. Another five deer in the vicinity of the park were shot and tested positive for CWD. Devil's Lake is what DNR officials refer to as a "spark" area — a CWD hot zone not connected to other affected areas but bearing the possibility of widening the disease's reach. "We are trying to stop this from spreading any farther north, so we're trying to make a big line in the sand for that disease," Eagan said.
"You're talking a very, very heavily used park, and (we have) safety concerns over how do you take the deer out of a park like that and protect public safety." In early January, state wildlife officials began to use trained shooters after a third deer with CWD was shot by a hunter in the park during the recent deer season. They are drawing in deer with bait piles placed far from places the public commonly visits in the 10,000-acre state park, then shooting the deer against a backdrop, Eagan said. DNR Secretary Scott Hassett, who was in Baraboo on Monday, said he recognizes the contradiction between a DNR policy that forbids baiting and the agency itself using bait piles.
>>>FULL ARTICLE
Journal Article(s) of Interest
Fate of Prions in Soil: Detergent Extraction of PrP from Soils [online abstract only]
Environ Sci Technol. 2007 Feb 1;41(3):811-7
C Cooke
Seroprevalence Rates and Rransmission of Plague (Yersinia pestis) in Mammalian Carnivores [online abstract only]
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006 Fall;6(3):231-9
D Salkeld
Serologic Evidence for Rickettsia typhi and an Ehrlichial Agent in Norway Rats from Baltimore, Maryland, USA [online abstract only]
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006 Fall;6(3):275-82
W Reeves et al.
Fate of Prions in Soil: Detergent Extraction of PrP from Soils [online abstract only]
Environ Sci Technol. 2007 Feb 1;41(3):811-7
C Cooke
Seroprevalence Rates and Rransmission of Plague (Yersinia pestis) in Mammalian Carnivores [online abstract only]
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006 Fall;6(3):231-9
D Salkeld
Serologic Evidence for Rickettsia typhi and an Ehrlichial Agent in Norway Rats from Baltimore, Maryland, USA [online abstract only]
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006 Fall;6(3):275-82
W Reeves et al.
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