It's Really up to Anglers to Halt Disease in Utah Fish [Editorial]
Deseret News Publishing Company
1 Mar 2007
R Grass
Area: Utah, USA
As Roger Wilson said, we all knew whirling disease would eventually be found in Strawberry Reservoir. It's not there yet, but it's creeping closer. Wilson, now sports-fishing coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, was for years the project leader at Strawberry. No one knows that lake better than Wilson. He said he never expected the disease to come down the pipeline but felt certain some unthinking angler would carry the parasite to the reservoir on his or her boots or in a patch of mud picked up at a contaminated site on the undercarriage or tire of a vehicle.
The parasite has been found just eight miles downstream from a pipeline that carries water indirectly to Strawberry. There are, at last count, 32 disease hot spots in Utah. They range from Otter Creek to Jordanelle to the Logan River. Signs are posted at these sites asking anglers and visitors to be aware and be diligent. What is so concerning here is the whirling disease parasite is durable. It can survive anywhere, for a long, long time and can be carried any number of ways — by humans, birds, animals or in the water itself. Which means a fisherman can pick up a glob of mud, with parasite attached, on his or her boots at Jordanelle and then drive to Strawberry, step to the shoreline and deposit the mud and parasite.
They're Betting on the Spread: Health Experts Gamble on Bird Flu in a Disease 'Futures Market'
The Associated Press (Posted by Concord Monitor Online)
2 Mar 2007
M Stobbe
Think bird flu will become a worldwide threat this summer? Care to put some money on that? In an unusual effort to better predict the advance of a potential flu pandemic, public health experts will be staked about $100 each to bet on the spread of bird flu. This type of grim futures market has also been created to predict hurricanes and temporarily, a few years ago, terrorist attacks.
In this case, the goal is to develop a faster way to collect expert opinion about the potential spread of a deadly disease outbreak. "Farmers have used futures markets for decades to make decisions about what crops to plant. We're just borrowing that concept to help people in public health and health care make decisions about the future," said Dr. Phil Polgreen, a University of Iowa assistant professor of medicine who helped create the project.
Animal Health Research [Editoral]
Science
2 Mar 2007
J Zinsstag
Area: United Kingdom
Today's intimate and rapid global interconnections mean that uncontrolled infectious diseases in one part of the world threaten animal and public health everywhere. The good news is that animal health sciences are technologically better equipped than ever before for detecting new disease outbreaks almost in real time. The bad news is that despite this, there is a daunting gap in converting these advances into effective actions and policies, particularly in developing countries. What can be done to remedy this lack of cohesion?
Some problems and possible solutions were recently discussed at a conference held in Hinxton, United Kingdom. Experts in animal health research and policy-makers from high- and low-income countries reviewed developments and challenges in the field, including vaccine design, the analysis of host responses to infection, and disease transmission from wild and domestic animals to humans. There is much to laud. New approaches underlie recent progress, including genome-based vaccine discovery for treating Anaplasma and post-genomic selection for vaccine response in chickens. We can also predict the size of outbreaks of emerging pathogens on the basis of their reproductive ratio. Even economic losses from livestock deaths may be prevented by a detailed understanding of the cyclical transmission of pathogens (such as African Trypanosoma) at the livestock/wildlife interface.
Fishy Noises Give Away Smuggler
The Associated Press (Posted by Toronto Star)
2 Mar 2007
Area: Australia
An Australian woman was sentenced Friday to nine months of community service work for smuggling protected fish from Asia in her dress. Sharon Naismith, 45, was caught in June 2005 at the airport in the southern city of Melbourne after customs officers heard ``flipping" noises coming from her clothes and conducted a search, Australian Customs said.
In a specially made apron under her dress, they found 15 plastic bags filled with water and fish: one rare Asian arowana that customs said was worth tens of thousands of dollars, and 14 catfish.
Who's to Blame for the Loose Red Deer? [Editorial]
River Valley Outdoors
28 Feb 2007
J Davis
Area: Wisconsin, USA
Maybe there is too much fuss being made over a few red deer that escaped from John Zernia’s farm near Stoddard, Wis. Maybe not. One could have asked the same question a few years ago when some wild hogs showed up in several counties south of La Crosse. Or how about when any other non-native species was allowed to establish itself in the wild after escaping?
“If enough animals escape, they could establish a population,” said Steve Dewald, Department of Natural Resources warden supervisor in La Crosse. “There is also a disease concern,” said Dave Matheys, DNR wildlife biologist in Vernon County. “Red deer are not native to the area and they can hybridize with elk, too.”
In Iran, Cheetahs Collared for the First Time
Biology News Net
1 Mar 2007
Area: Iran
An international team of scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society working in Iran has successfully fitted two Asiatic cheetahs with Global Positioning System (GPS) collars, marking the first time this highly endangered population of big cats can be tracked by conservationists. Once found throughout the continent, Asiatic cheetahs now live only in extremely arid habitat on the edges of Iran's Kavir Desert. WCS's government partner in Iran, the Department of Environment/CACP project estimates their remaining numbers between 60 and 100 animals, making the Asiatic cheetah one of the most imperiled cats on earth.
The two male cheetahs were captured in the Bafgh Protected Area, Yazd Province, in the south-west area of the central Iranian plateau, where they were tranquilized, and fitted with compact GPS collars weighing 350 grams- only 1% of the cheetahs' weight. It is the first time the species has been handled by a scientific team in Iran and represents a unique new phase of WCS's long-term involvement in the country. The new collars will furnish very precise information on the routes that cheetahs use to travel between protected areas, and will reveal the key features in the landscapes that are critical to their survival. .
Serologic Evidence of West Nile Virus Exposure in North American Mesopredators
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2007 Jan;76(1):173-9
KT Bentler and et al.
Indirect Flight of an African Bat to Israel: An Example of the Potential for Zoonotic Pathogens to Move between Continents
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006;6(4):347-50
N Leader and et al.
Confined Animal Feeding Operations as Amplifiers of Influenza
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006;6(4):338-46
RA Saenz and et al.
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