Mange in the Mountains
Billings Gazette (Posted by jacksonholdstartrib.com)
04 Mar 2007
Mike Stark
Area: Montana, USA
The war on wolves took a strange twist in the winter of 1905. After two decades of paying bounties for hundreds of thousands of dead wolves in Montana, the Legislature approved a new law -- "to provide for the extermination of wolves and coyotes" -- dabbling in the emerging practice of biological warfare. The idea was simple and cheap: capture wolves and coyotes, infect them with mange and send them back into the wild. Eventually, the theory went, the animals would return to their packs and spread the highly contagious and sometimes fatal disease, which causes animals to itch so feverishly they lose hair.
The disease, caused by a tiny skin-burrowing mite, can leave wolves emaciated, staggering and susceptible to hypothermia, infections and other health problems. Eastern Montana saw "unqualifiedly splendid results" and reports of hundreds of dead and diseased wolves, said Morton E. Knowles, state veterinarian at the time of the program. He recommended the technique to others. "The predatory pest question so far as coyotes and wolves are concerned will be settled for all time," Knowles wrote to the Breeder's Gazette, a farming and ranching magazine, in 1914.
No Sign of Bird Flu in Nevada Water Fowl
The Ely Times
02 Mar 2007
Area: Nevada, USA
The Nevada Department of Wildlife, working with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services personnel, has completed testing on nearly 2,500 bird samples from around Nevada and found no samples testing positive for avian influenza. State and federal agencies are running these tests as a preemptive measure, although the avian influenza (HPAI A(H5N1) also referred to as the “bird flu” has not yet been detected in wild birds or domestic poultry on the North American continent. Personnel from NDOW, USFWS and U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services personnel captured live birds over the summer and sampled ducks, geese and swans taken by hunters from October through January.
The objective set forth in the Nevada Plan was to sample migratory bird species most likely to have contact with the Asian continent or mingle with birds coming from there. NDOW collected a total of 772 samples while Wildlife Services collected over 1,500 samples in Nevada from live birds, hunter-harvested birds and from the environment in which these birds live. The Nevada Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease and Food Safety Lab (ADL) in Reno conducted initial tests with any samples that exhibited a presumptive positive finding shipped to the National Veterinary Services Center in Ames, Iowa for confirmation. None of these samples tested positive for HPAI H5N1.
Rabies Alert — Disease Prevention Must Be Priority
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
02 Mar 2007
Area: West Virginia, USA
In light of a severe rabies threat spanning Mercer and Tazewell counties, citizens must be on high alert to avoid exposure to this fatal disease while also taking necessary measures to prevent its spread. A report Friday of a dead raccoon placed on a student’s vehicle at a Tazewell County school — confirmed to be infected with rabies — underscores the serious nature of this disease. The raccoon was put on the vehicle Feb. 23, and was later submitted for testing by the family of the student through the Mercer County Health Department. However, a second dead raccoon was also placed on the same student’s vehicle Feb. 28, and this animal was unable to be tested for the disease.
Due to the deadly nature of rabies, the Virginia Department of Health is requesting any student or individual who may have come into contact with these raccoons to immediately notify the Tazewell County Health Department at (276) 988-5585, or their individual health care provider. “To be at risk for exposure a person would have had to come into direct contact with the salvia or brain tissue of the dead rabid raccoon and have introduced this material into a cut on the skin or onto the thin skin of the nostrils, eyes or mouth,” according to information from the Virginia Department of Health. While there is no need for a public panic, this is cause for concern among parents and students in Tazewell County.
No Brain Disease Found in Deer
The Beacon Journal
04 Mar 2007
Bob Downing
Area: Ohio, USA
No evidence of chronic wasting disease was found in this winter's testing of the Ohio white-tailed deer herd. Nearly 1,100 samples taken last year showed no sign of the fatal and degenerative brain disease that afflicts deer and elk, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported. It was the fifth year that Ohio deer have been tested for chronic wasting disease, which has been found in wild or captive deer or elk in 14 other states and Canada. Most of the samples came from deer harvested by hunters, primarily during the deer-gun season that ran from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.
The testing was conducted at the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease Diagnostics Laboratory. The testing included samples from hunters' check-in stations and deer-processing facilities in Summit, Medina, Portage, Stark and Wayne counties. Carolyn Caldwell of the Ohio Division of Wildlife said that for the first time, deer killed on Ohio roads are being tested for the disease. That testing of 500 deer should be completed by the end of March.
Journal Article(s) of Interest
Public Health Awareness of Emerging Zoonotic Viruses of Bats: A European Perspective [Online Abstract Only]
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2006;6(4):315-24
W van der Poel et al.
Influenza Virus Type A Serosurvey in Cats [Free Full-Text Available]
Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 April; 13(4): [Epub ahead of print]
S Paltrinieri et al.
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