Zimbabwe: Experts to Research on Animal Health at Park
The Herald (Harare)(Posted by allafrica.com)
26 Apr 2007
Area: Zimbabwe Africa
The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has engaged veterinary experts to conduct research on diseases and health status of animals at the Gonarezhou National Park. The authority yesterday issued a permit to Wildlife Veterinary Services allowing it to undertake the study. The research would result in the setting up of a veterinary site to help control diseases and the movement of wildlife, which has changed with the coming into operation of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, the authority said. The wildlife health experts are expected to assess the health status of animals and closely work with counterparts from Mozambique and South Africa to help contain disease outbreaks.
The decision to involve the Wildlife Veterinary Services comes after a meeting between parks authorities and wildlife health experts over a week ago. "The veterinary experts were concerned about the health status of animals, especially with the development of large transfrontier conservation areas like the Great Limpopo Park comprising South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe," parks public relations manager Retired Major Edward Mbewe said. He said the management of wildlife and livestock diseases within the envisaged larger trans-boundary landscapes remains unsolved and an issue of major concern to other economic sectors in the country and the Southern Africa region. Rtd Maj Mbewe said several meetings held by the three countries that make up the GLTP also showed that all parties were optimistic about the benefits they were going to accrue but not much has been discussed regarding the aspect of disease control.
Pat Durkin Column: Pseudorabies Provides Latest Warning; Is Anyone Listening?
Green Bay Press Gazette
26 Apr 2007
Area: Wisconsin USA
Wisconsin received another reminder this past week that diseases affecting wildlife and livestock habitually are rude in their arrivals, never bothering to phone ahead with fair warning. The most recent disease to drop in unannounced is pseudorabies — or "false rabies," for you college graduates — and was found last week on two swine farms in Clark County. The disease especially is deadly in young pigs, and often causes still-births when infecting adult females. Wisconsin last saw this disease in 1998, and our pork industry had been certified pseudorabies-free since 2000.
We haven't lost that status, but state officials are wondering how the disease resurfaced in those two swine herds northwest of Marshfield. For the record, commercial swine aren't likely to pass pseudorabies to white-tailed deer, black bears or other wildlife. Although the "mad itch" virus is passed easily between pigs through mucus and saliva contacting their snouts, it usually doesn't infect other animals unless a pig bites them. This outbreak isn't likely to cause economic hardships for Wisconsin's agricultural industry, although Michigan has banned pig imports from here until further notice.
What's In The Water? Estrogen-like Chemicals Found in Fish Caught in Pittsburgh's Rivers, USA
University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences (Posted by sciencedaily.com)
17 Apr 2007
Area: Pittsburgh, PA USA
A new study from the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Oncology suggests that fish caught in Pittsburgh rivers contain substances that mimic the actions of estrogen, the female hormone. Since fish are sentinels of the environment, and can concentrate chemicals from their habitat within their bodies, these results suggest that feminizing chemicals may be making their way into the region's waterways. The study, abstract number 3458, being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, April 14-18, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, also demonstrated that the chemicals extracted from the local fish can cause growth of estrogen-sensitive breast cancer cells cultured in the laboratory.
Extracts of fish caught in areas heavily polluted by industrial and municipal wastes resulted in the greatest amount of cell growth. "We decided to look at pisciverous fish, those that eat other fish, for this project because we know that they bioaccumulate contaminants from water and their prey, which may include toxic metals, farm and industrial runoff and wastes from aging municipal sewer systems," said Conrad D. Volz, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., principal investigator, department of environmental and occupational health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. "The goals of this project are to use fish as environmental sensors of chemicals in the water and the aquatic food chain, and to determine the origins of these chemical contaminants," said Dr. Volz. The study examined white bass and channel catfish caught in the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.
Game and Fish Decides to Expand Test-and-Slaughter Areas
Star-Tribune
25 Apr 2007
B Farquhar
Area: Wyoming USA
Wyoming Game & Fish commissioners were told Tuesday that the ongoing brucellosis test-and-slaughter program in the Pinedale area was “discouraging” this past winter, with even more challenges to come. Scott Talbott, assistant division chief of Game and Fish's Wildlife Division, reported to the commissioners that department personnel set a corral trap three times this past winter, with limited success on the Muddy Creek feedground. In response, the Game and Fish Department plans to expand the program to the Fall Creek feedground for the 2007-08 winter and to the Scab Creek feedground the following winter, Talbott said. Those feedgrounds typically receive much more snow than Muddy Creek.
Talbott explained that G&F staff has researched whether it would be possible to remove seropositive elk cows via tracked and ski-equipped vehicles and trailers, ultimately decided that wasn’t a viable option. Instead, said Talbott, the department will need to periodically plow-out the roads into the feedgrounds, so that brucellosis-tainted animals can be hauled away for slaughter. He estimated that it would cost $70,000 to keep the road to the Fall Creek feedground open during the feeding season when a test and slaughter program can be conducted. The specially-designed capture corral will likely be erected on nearby Bureau of Land Management land, Talbott said.
More Effective 'Drive Against Epidemics'
People's Daily Online
25 Apr 2007
Area: China
China plans to penalize people who conceal, delay or lie about the outbreak of an animal-related disease. The move is aimed at ensuring timely intervention and to strengthen cooperation with international organizations to fight an epidemic. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, yesterday began deliberating a draft amendment to the law on preventing animal-related epidemics aimed as lessening its social and economic impact. The draft demands a prompt and transparent reporting system, saying that all government agencies, businesses and individuals must report to veterinary departments immediately after knowing about an outbreak of an animal-related disease.
Officials and government employees who fail to take prompt preventative steps, delay reporting or try to cover up such outbreaks will be penalized, according to the draft, which was tabled at the 27th session of the 10th NPC Standing Committee. To ensure transparency and check panic from spreading, the draft asks the veterinary authorities to promptly inform government departments and the army of any severe outbreak of an animal-related disease. That will help the government to take immediate steps to check its spread. Information on serious outbreaks should be sent in time to international organizations and trade partners such the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health, the draft says.
>>>FULL ARTICLE
Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Marine-Foraging River Otters (Lontra canadensis) from the Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem [online abstract only]
J Parasitol. 2007 Feb;93(1):198-202
JK Gaydos et al.
Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine – March Issue
Volume 38, Issue 1 (March 2007)
Table of Contents
A Cost–Benefit Analysis of Culling Badgers to Control Bovine Tuberculosis [online abstract only]
The Veterinary Journal. 2007 Mar;173(2):302-310
GC Smith et al.
No comments:
Post a Comment