Toxic Algae Bloom Kills Wildlife Along Calif. Coast
ABC 7 News
28 Apr 2007
E Rosales
Area: California USA

Hundreds of California birds, sea lions and dolphins are dying because of an algae bloom off the coast. Environmentalists say the ocean algae produces a toxic acid and both injured and dead marine life have been washing ashore from San Diego to San Francisco. Michelle Berman, assistant curator at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History says marine biologists have documented 18 dolphin strandings in the past three weeks. Michelle Berman, S.B. Museum Of Natural History: "We're seeing one or two a day, which is a lot of dolphins in this area, when we usually see only one or two a month."

Scientists say the numbers are alarming. They're not only seeing dolphins washing up on shore, but whales as well. In early April, a 30-foot sperm whale washed up near Surf Point in Isla Vista. Days later another whale washed up on shore in Ventura Beach. Marine biologists here in the Bay Area believe an algae bloom is producing a toxic acid that's killing ocean life. Jim Oswald, Marine Mammal Center: "Anchovies and fish eat this particular type of harmful algae and then marine mammals such as seals and sea lions, dolphins and whales eat those fish and become really ill."

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Disease Divides Fed Agencies
Casper Star-Tribune
27 Apr 2007
B Farquhar
Area: Wyoming USA

There’s a deep division between two federal agencies over eradication of brucellosis in the bison and elk of Yellowstone National Park. That divide was the 800-pound gorilla for the Wyoming Governor's Brucellosis Coordination Committee here on Thursday. {M3Bret Combs, the area veterinarian in charge of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's Veterinary Services, acknowledged that his group and the National Park Service “are not on the same page” regarding the eradication of brucellosis in Yellowstone wildlife. Combs also acknowledged that until that gap is closed, Wyoming’s efforts to eliminate the disease in wildlife are likely doomed to failure.

John Keck, the Wyoming state coordinator for the National Park Service, didn’t say much before the committee, but explained in a separate interview how complex the brucellosis problem looks from the Park Service's perspective. Keck said the agency divide exists in part because the Park Service does not regard its wildlife as a form of livestock. Indeed, the “wildness” of elk and bison are valued, and Park Service leadership balks at the suggestion from APHIS and ranchers that elk and bison be rounded up and processed through a test-and-slaughter program. “Twenty minutes after we announced such a program, we’d get sued,” said Keck.

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Dozens of Nilgai Antelope Killed in Texas to Stop Tick Spread
Canadian Press (Posted by brandonsun.com)
29 Apr 2007
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 are not so much a rarity in South Texas as a nuisance. For cattle ranchers they are a possible nemesis, threatening to spread a deadly tick to the herds. Federal wildlife officials say the nilgai compete with native Rio Grande Valley species for food and trample the brush they are trying so hard to preserve.

The fast-running, 250-kilogram antelope have wandered all around the region, where at least one picked up a kind of fever tick from Mexico that once nearly wiped out American cattle. The ticks spread among the population and threaten the cattle. Federal officials said they had no choice but to hire a "helicopter and gunner" to slaughter them. Thirty-seven were killed during the two-day hunt in March on a portion of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge that runs along the border.

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Deer Die of Unknown Disease, Forest Dept in a Spot
The Statesman
29 Apr 2007
Area: Orissa, India

The outbreak of a mysterious animal disease killing at least three spotted deer in Bhitarkanika National Park (BNP) over the past one week has left the wildlife personnel in a quandary. Deer are perishing at frequent intervals and it has become a yearly phenomenon in the national park where over 5,000 spotted deer are living.
The study on the animals’ death in the past years by animal disease researchers diagnosed that the feline species had succumbed to tuberculosis. Officials revealed that the decomposed carcasses of at least three spotted deer, including one horned male one, had been sighted by ground-level staff between 19 and 21 April. Initially, it was feared that the species might have been killed by poachers who later might have left it behind to escape from the patrolling forest guards.

There were, however, neither external injuries nor marks of strangulation on necks as mostly found in cases of poaching, according to BNP officials. After preliminary investigation by forest officials, along with local veterinary surgeons, the cause of the death was diagnosed as some form of animal disease. Fortunately, no further report of deer dying in the 145 square km of national park has come to light since 21 April, the officials maintained. On the other hand, unconfirmed reports put the deer death toll at nine.

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Chronic Wasting Disease Is Transmissible Among Rodents
American Society for Microbiology (Posted by sciencedaily.com)
27 Apr 2007

For the first time, a new study demonstrates that certain rodents can be directly infected with CWD and therefore serve as animal models for further study of the disease. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), also known as mad cow disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans, is a transmissible prion disease most commonly found in deer and elk.

Conversion of the normal host protein to an abnormal disease-associated form is an important part in the tracking of prion diseases and researchers are hopeful that rodent-adapted CWD models could assist in therapeutic development. In the study transgenic and wild-type mice in addition to Syrian, Djungarian, Chinese, Siberian and Armenian hamsters were inoculated with CWD samples retrieved from deer and elk and monitored over various amounts of time.

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Related Article(s)
>>>No Sign of CWD in Kansas Tests

Journal Article(s) of Interest

Tickborne Encephalitis in Naturally Exposed Monkey (Macaca sylvanus)
Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 Jun; [Epub ahead of print]
J Suss et al.

Prions: The New Biology of Proteins [book review]

Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 Jun; [Epub ahead of print]
ED Belay