Foot and Mouth Disease Hits Queen Elizabeth Park
The New Vision - newvision.co.ug
25 May 2007
G Tenywa
Area: Uganda Africa
A fresh outbreak of foot and mouth disease has hit Queen Elizabeth National Park, causing fear that it might spread to wildlife species. The outbreak has caused controversy over the presence of the Basongora herdsmen, who are keeping over 10,000 head of cattle in the park. “I have directed that the cattle be vaccinated and moved out of the park,” said Serapio Rukundo, the Minister of State for Tourism. “There is a growing crisis on our hands because there is a risk of the disease spreading to the wild animals.’’
Sources said the pastoralists had refused to produce their animals for treatment, fearing a ploy to evict them from the park. “We are working with the Ministry of Agriculture to get the cattle vaccinated and curtail the spread of the disease,’’ said Rukundo. The minister noted that tour operators and investors have been complaining that they encounter more cattle than wild animals in the park. He said Queen Elizabeth is the most popular park in the country.
Lab in City Tests for Bird Flu
Wisconsin State Journal - madison.com
27 May 2007
D Wahlberg
Area: Madison, WI USA
An unusual delivery expected in Madison this week will mark the second year of a high-stakes effort to protect the country from deadly bird flu. Shipping boxes will carry waste samples, frozen in tiny vials, from birds in Alaska to the National Wildlife Health Center off Schroeder Road. Scientists will test the samples to see if the H5N1 bird flu virus, which continues to devastate flocks in Asia and Europe and kill some people, has arrived in the U.S. Meanwhile, the state will again test for bird flu this summer, with an increased focus on dead birds. None of the 28,000 samples from ducks, geese and other wild birds tested at the National Wildlife Health Center last year -- or the 102,000 samples tested at other U.S. labs -- showed evidence of the troublesome H5N1 virus, though other strains of bird flu were found.
But the threat of H5N1 remains. Scientists fear the virus could trigger a global flu epidemic in humans. It could also harm the U.S. poultry industry if found here. "We have shown as best we can that H5N1 was not in North America in 2006," said Hon Ip, who oversees the diagnostic virology lab at the National Wildlife Health Center. "But as long as the situation is unresolved in other parts of the world, surveillance needs to continue."
Wisconsin: Dead Trout on Lake Michigan Shore Had Virus
The Associated Press - wtol.com
24 May 2007
Area: Wisconsin USA
A Lake Michigan fish appears to have tested positive for a deadly fish virus, confirming suspicions that the disease was in the lake. The dead brown trout washed up on shore near Kewaunee and Algoma, Wisconsin.
Florida Tries to Wipe Out Cat-sized African RatsReuters - stuff.co.nz
26 May 2007
Area: Florida USA
Deep in the heart of the Florida Keys, wildlife officials are laying bait laced with poison to try to wipe out a colony of enormous African rats that could threaten crops and other animals. US federal and state officials are beginning the final phase of a two-year project to eradicate the Gambian pouched rats, which can grow to the size of a cat and began reproducing in the remote area about eight years ago. "This is the only place in the United States where this is occurring," said Gary Witmer, a biologist with the US Department of Agriculture's National Wildlife Research Centre in Fort Collins, Colorado. "They don't belong here and they need to be controlled."
. . . The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta and the Food and Drug Administration have banned importation of Gambian rats since 2003. That was after an outbreak of monkey-pox, similar to but milder to humans than smallpox, was linked to Gambian rat contact with prairie dogs in the US Midwest. The CDC hopes to study the carcasses and fecal samples of Gambian rats from the Grassy Keys to learn about internal parasites, but they have shown no signs of monkey-pox. "We're lucky that's the case," Witmer said. "They sure can bite."
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