Wildlife Disease News Digest

Dozens of Nilgai Antelope Killed to Stop Tick Spread: Exotic Animals Have Become a Nuisance
The Associated Press (Posted by stateman.com)
07 Apr 2007
L Brezosky
Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept.
Area: Texas USA

South Texas ranchers brought nilgai antelope from a California zoo decades ago, when it became fashionable to stock their sprawling acreage with exotic quarry. These days the species, native to India and Pakistan, is not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers the animals are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to their herds. Federal wildlife officials say the antelope are competing with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trampling the brush they are trying so hard to preserve.

The fast-running, 600-pound antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the antelope population and threaten cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" last week to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge along the border.

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Avian Cholera - Canada (Newfoundland): Investigation of Mysterious Bird Deaths - Archive Number 20070408.1178
International Society for Infectious Diseases - ProMED-mail
07 Apr 2007
Area: Canada

A biologist and bird expert has some theories about the deaths of a large number of birds that washed ashore in Holyrood on Friday [6 Apr 2007]. Bill Montevecchi says the birds are thick billed murs and common murs. Montevecchi says the deaths may be due to avian cholera or starvation. He says that in November and December 2006, there was a major outbreak of avian cholera offshore and that it affected mostly large gulls, with a little bit inshore near St. John's.

Avian cholera, also known as fowl cholera, is one of the most common diseases among wild North American waterfowl. This disease kills swiftly, sometimes in as few as 6 to 12 hours after infection, and healthy birds can contract the disease from bacteria released into the environment by dead and dying birds. Montevecchi says the other option is that the birds have been unable to get food for a while due to wind conditions or unavailability. Montevecchi says birds have also been turning up in other areas.

>>>FULL JOURNAL ARTICLE

Mercury Rising: Adirondack Levels Alarmingly High According to Recent Study
The Post Star
08 Apr 2007
A Bensen
Area: New York USA

A recent study warns of widespread mercury contamination in the Adirondacks after scientists found high levels of the dangerous element in the picturesque wilderness and wildlife that personify the region. "I do a lot of work in the Adirondacks, so I knew the concentrations were high. But to put all this together, and learn that 10 of the top 13 species of fish had average concentrations above the EPA guidance value -- to me, that's unbelievable!" said Charles Driscoll, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Syracuse University. He led the mercury study, which includes the central Adirondacks on a list of five confirmed biological mercury hot spots in the Northeast.

Driscoll worked with scientists from Clarkson University and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, a New Hampshire-based nonprofit group that studies forest ecosystems. The team spent three years analyzing data from more than 6,800 observations of seven wildlife species in the Adirondacks and New England. The results, which were published in a January 2007 study called "Mercury Matters," shocked him. Mercury is fairly harmless in its elemental form, but when it enters watersheds and lakes, it gets transformed into a much more mobile and toxic form called methyl mercury.

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Chauvin Cull Wraps Up
Lloydminster Meridian Booster
09 Apr 2007
JB Spigott
Area: Alberta, Canada

More than 1,400 deer have been culled in Alberta Fish and Wildlife’s latest attempt to halt the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the Chauvin area.

More than 1,400 deer have been culled in Alberta Fish and Wildlife’s latest attempt to halt the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the Chauvin area. Lyle Fullerton, communications officer with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, says the collected animals are currently being tested, and the results should be released by the end of April. “We kind of expected numbers like this,” said Fullerton. “Overall, for the amount of time we were in the field for the number of animals we collected – it was very successful.” The department used a helicopter in this year’s cull, something that helped remove deer more quickly and efficiently.

“In the past, we were probably collecting 80 to 90 animals a day,” said Fullerton. “This year, we had numerous days where we collected over 200 animals a day. “The helicopter certainly looks like it’s going to be a very viable tool for our toolbox on CWD.” Government officials took 16 days to cull 1,401 deer from the Chauvin area and 449 from the Empress-Acadia Valley area, two of the identified high-risk areas for CWD along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Fullerton said the national protocol is to remove every animal that may have been in contact with CWD, which means this isn’t the last cull for the Chauvin area.

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Related Deer Disease Article

>>>Biologist: Deer Baiting Has Good, Bad Points

Seals Found Dead on Caspian Sea Shores
The Associated Press (Posted by news.yahoo.com)
08 Apr 2007
Photo courtesy of AFP/Greenpeace-HO/File
Area: Kazakhstan

Nearly 250 dead seals have washed up on the shores of the Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan in the past week, emergency officials said Saturday. Authorities were conducting tests to determined what killed the 247 seals found by oil workers inspecting the shore in western Mangistau region, the Emergencies Agency said.

Environmentalists have been concerned about increasing exploration of the Caspian Sea's extensive oil reserves. Last year, 350 seals and thousands of sturgeon died in a northern part of the Caspian region as a result of a heavy metal leak from the Kashagan oil field. Also, several epidemics of a viral disease have killed thousands of Caspian seals since the late 1990s.

>>>ARTICLE