Migratory Birds Put Officials on Alert
People's Daily Online
10 Apr 2007
Area: China
Liu Huajin grows more and more tense the closer spring gets. Liu, an official at Xingkai Lake Natural Reserve in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is charged with preventing outbreaks of avian flu at the reserve. And at a time when millions of birds from southern China and Southeast Asia are stopping at the lake to rest on their way back to Russia and other neighboring countries, the burden of this responsibility grows particularly heavy. "The temperature is rising. The ice on the lakes is melting, which is attracting more birds," he said.
The situation exposes the reserve, which sits along the China-Russia border, to possible bird flu outbreaks. "It is a vital time for anti-bird flu work as tens of thousands of birds come here every day," Liu said after a recent trip out to an observation post. "All 41 of our staff members are working on the issue. The whole reserve is on high alert."
Post Independent
12 Apr 2007
B Berwyn
Area: Colorado USA
Biologists breeding fish resistant to devastating disease, but funding cuts loom
Local guide Trapper Rudd remembers well the heyday of fishing for rainbow trout in Colorado, before whirling disease spread into the state in 1987 and crippled and deformed the beautiful speckled fish. In just 10 years, many wild rainbow trout populations across the state were decimated. “It truly was a magnificent time,” Rudd said. “You could get into the double-digits pretty quick. The rainbow populations here were as strong as anywhere in the country.”
Rainbows are known for their willingness to rise to a dry fly, and for their splashy acrobatic moves once they’re hooked, he said. “We started seeing it before we know what it was,” Rudd said of whirling disease. “When it was in its bloom, we started catching these small fish that were deformed. We noticed them acting funny around the banks.” It didn’t take biologists very long to figure what was going on. Parasitic spores — part of a complex life cycle involving mud-dwelling worms — were infecting the fish and spreading like wildfire.
Take Precautions Against Tick-Borne Diseases
Kansas City Infozine
11 Apr 2007
J Low
Area: Missouri USA
Martensen wasn't thinking of tick-borne disease when he skinned a raccoon after a hunt on Christmas Day in 2005. He wasn't thinking of the raccoon when he got sick. He thinks of both now, every time he works with wild game. Martensen is a private land field programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation in Jefferson City. As a wildlife expert, he knew that handling game carried a very small risk of contracting tick-borne diseases.
Yet, he had never worn rubber gloves when cleaning game. "I didn't think anything of it when I cut my thumb while cleaning that raccoon," he said. He had already forgotten about the cut when he started feeling feverish 11 days later. He stayed home from work Jan. 6 with aches, chills and a headache that "seemed to get worse by the hour, possibly by the minute."
Journal Article(s) of Interest
Leptospirosis in Urban Wild Boars, Berlin, Germany [free full-text available]
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2007 May;13(5):[Epub ahead of print]
A Jansen et al.
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