Wildlife Disease News Digest

Wildlife Smugglers Test Their Skills, Even at the Airport
The New York Times
01 Apr 2007
J Steinhauer
Photos courtesy of The New York Times

Somewhere amid the rolling suitcases, plastic baggies filled with lip gloss, laptops, skis and other sundry items streaming through Los Angeles International Airport, there are, occasionally, rare butterflies, elephant tusks, sea turtle eggs and, in one case, a pair of pygmy monkeys, stuffed down the pants of an incoming passenger.

Wildlife smuggling is the nation’s second-largest black market, just behind narcotics, accounting for $8 billion to $10 billion a year in sales, said Joseph O. Johns, the chief of the environmental crimes section in the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

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Red Tide Blamed for at Least 8 Manatee Deaths
Naples Daily News
06 Apr 2007
J Ochoa
Area: Lee County, Florida

Red tide killed at least eight of the 26 manatees that were found in Lee County over a two-week period in March, state scientists said Thursday. Results of necropsies, animal versions of autopsies, show that high levels of the red tide toxin were positive in eight of the manatees, said Cathy Palmer, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.
Scientists suspect the toxin may be responsible for 12 other deaths but are waiting results from necropsies.

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Bird Flu Found Among Hong Kong’s Migratory Birds. China Remains Silent
AsiaNews.it
04 Apr 2007
Area: Hong Kong, China

A new strain, previously denied by China, is found. FAO issues a pandemic alert for Indonesia and Egypt.

Bird flu is spreading among Hong Kong’s wild birds, while China remains silent regarding new cases of infection. In Japan, a new strain of the virus, resistant to antiviral drugs, has been found, while Indonesia declares its 72nd death from the disease. Fao reports that both Indonesia and Egypt are run the risk of a human epidemic.

Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said that of 3,430 wild birds found dead and tested for H5N1 this year, 15 had tested positive, all for the “Fujian " strain of the virus. It is the same strain identified in a scientific paper published in October 2006 by University of Hong Kong virologists Guan Yi and Malik Peiris and US flu expert Robert Webster, of St Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The researchers called it a new strain of the deadly H5N1, and said it had emerged in October 2005.

The strain had been found in almost all poultry outbreaks and in some human cases in southern China, and had been detected in Hong Kong, Laos and Thailand. In 2006 15 wild birds and 2 hens were tested positive to the strain in the area. The scientific community now suspects that China has not been transparent about its mapping of the virus. The Chinese Agriculture Minister defined the research data as “false” and the viral strain “non-existent”. Yet in December 2006 WHO acting assistant director-general David Heymann said the strain had been circulating since 2005 and that the mainland had provided information and sequencing data about the strain.

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Mainland Tasmanian Devil Gives Birth [Interview]
The World Today
05 Apr 2007
F Ogilvie
Area: Queensland, Australia

ELEANOR HALL: A mainland breeding program designed to help save the Tasmanian devil from extinction has had its first success, with the birth of four baby devils at a Wildlife Park in Queensland.

Forty-seven Tasmanian devils have been sent to four zoos on the mainland. Scientists say there is an urgent need for breeding in captivity because Tasmania's wild devils are being killed by a contagious cancer. The Facial Tumor Disease has already killed half of Tasmania's wild devil population and scientists have been warning that the animal could be extinct within 20 years. In Tasmania, Felicity Ogilvie reports.

FELICITY OGILVIE: There is excitement around the birth of four baby Tasmanian devils, in a Queensland wildlife park, because the animals have a short fertility period and a once a year chance to fall pregnant.

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Limited Danger of New Foot-and-Mouth Disease Outbreaks in North Korea: North Korea Should Remain on Alert
Relief Web (Source: Food and Argiculture Organization of the United Nations)
04 Apr 2007
Area: North Korea

The recent outbreak of the highly contagious Foot-and-Mouth Disease in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was probably a single case and appears to be under control, FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said today after the return of a one-week mission to the country.

The outbreak started in January at a farm in Sangwon near the capital of Pyongyang and was brought into the country through a shipment of live animals. It was the first outbreak of Foot-and-Mouth Disease in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since 1960.
"Based on the mission's visit to the infected area and discussions with North Korean veterinary authorities we concluded that there is a limited risk that new outbreaks could occur. North Korea should, however, remain on alert," said Joseph Domenech, FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer.

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Rabies Alert: One Domestic Animal Found Infected; All of Phelps County on Alert
Rolla Daily News
04April 2007
L Ginsberg
Area: Phelps County, Missouri

The discovery of an infected horse has put Phelps County under a rabies alert for at least the next 90 days. On March 23, a rabid horse was discovered in Phelps County, and on March 26, a rabies alert was declared by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS). . . .

Waltman said it is likely the horse was infected by a rabid bat, but it will take two weeks for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to confirm the source of the infection. To date, the horse is the only infected animal reported in Phelps County, though a rabid bat has been found elsewhere in the state. In 2006, a total of 66 rabid animals were detected in Missouri, including 55 bats, eight skunks, one cow and two horses. “In the last five years, there’s usually been at least one wild animal documented with rabies,” Waltman said. “We have a reservoir of wild (rabid) animals in our area.”

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Journal Article(s) of Interest

Complete Genome Analysis of 33 Ecologically and Biologically Diverse Rift Valley Fever Virus Strains Reveals Widespread Virus Movement and Low Genetic Diversity due to Recent Common Ancestry [online abstract only]
J Virol. 2007 Mar;81(6):2805-16. Epub 2006 Dec 27
BH Bird et al.

Genome Analysis Linking Recent European and African Influenza (H5N1) Viruses [free full-text available]
Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2007 May; 13(5): [Epub ahead of print]
SL Salzberg et al.