Honeybee Die-Off Threatens Food Supply
The Associated Press (Posted by livescience.com)
02 May 2007
S Borenstein
Unless someone or something stops it soon, the mysterious killer that is wiping out many of the nation's honeybees could have a devastating effect on America's dinner plate, perhaps even reducing us to a glorified bread-and-water diet. Honeybees don't just make honey; they pollinate more than 90 of the tastiest flowering crops we have. Among them: apples, nuts, avocados, soybeans, asparagus, broccoli, celery, squash and cucumbers. And lots of the really sweet and tart stuff, too, including citrus fruit, peaches, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, cantaloupe and other melons.
In fact, about one-third of the human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, and the honeybee is responsible for 80 percent of that pollination, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Even cattle, which feed on alfalfa, depend on bees. So if the collapse worsens, we could end up being “stuck with grains and water,'' said Kevin Hackett, the national program leader for USDA's bee and pollination program. “This is the biggest general threat to our food supply,'' Hackett said.
Last Wild Bison Harassed by Government During Calving Season [Press Release]
Buffalo Field Campaign
01 May 2007
Area: Montana USA
Today, the Montana Department of Livestock (DOL), Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP), the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service abandoned their short lived adherence to the adaptive changes to the Interagency Bison Management Plan by hazing nearly all of the buffalo that are currently in Montana back into Yellowstone National Park, including very pregnant females and many newborn calves. According to a DOL press release issued by the Montana Dept. of Fish Wildlife and Parks, the DOL's new public relations agency, the purpose of the hazing operations is to "limit the risk of brucellosis transmission from bison to cattle". However there are no cattle currently present in the West Yellowstone nor will any cattle arrive for well over a month.
The press release further states that, " Research indicates that brucellosis can persist in the environment for some time under varying temperature and light conditions." However, the very same research also indicates that bacterium from aborted fetuses placed in the environment was gone by mid-May regardless of the date the fetuses were placed. An additional study also concluded that the average time for fetuses to disappear due to the activity of scavengers was 14 days. At the very least, this information leads to the conclusion that DOL/FWP are only telling a portion of the story to sugarcoat the agencies arbitrary actions and justify the mistreatment of the wild buffalo.
Ninth Case of Rabies Confirmed in County
Sulphur Springs News-Telegram Online
01 May 2007
B Alsobrook
Area: Texas USA
Everybody knows one good reason to stay away from skunks. Now there are 9 more. That's the number of confirmed cases of rabid skunks in Hopkins County this year [2007] alone, as many as have been recorded in the previous 7 years combined. Dr. James H. Wright, regional zoonosis veterinarian with the Texas Department of State Health Services office in Tyler, issued a notice Monday [30 Apr 2007] that there have been 9 confirmed cases of skunks with rabies in the county so far this year.
Number 8 was recorded earlier this month [April 2007] when a homeowner near Sulphur Springs found her 2 dogs had been fighting with a skunk the morning of 12 Apr 2007. She was unable to find the skunk but had her 2 canines vaccinated as a precaution. Four days later, she found a dead skunk in the pen with her dogs. She put the skunk in a plastic bag and took it to a local veterinarian, where it tested positive for rabies.
Bacteria, Mold Blamed for Fish Kill
Dateline Alabama
03 May 2007
J Smith
Area: Alabama USA
Fisheries biologists say a bacterial disease and a water mold are the cause of a fish kill that started on Lake Tuscaloosa last week. Jerry Moss, the district fisheries supervisor for the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, said the 400 to 500 white crappie that were found dead in Lake Tuscaloosa in the last seven days were “loaded" with a bacteria called columnarius and a water mold called Saprolegnia. Moss said both the mold and the bacteria typically cause fishes’ protective slime layers and internal organs to dissolve and causes them to suffocate when their gills go through necrosis, or tissue death. It usually only proves fatal in fish that are old or in a weakened state.
Moss said the white crappie found dead and/or dying in the lake had just finished spawning and were weakened from spending energy creating sperm and eggs. “They were tired and spent and their immune system wasn’t up to par," Moss said. “They had a compromised immune system and couldn’t fight off infection. That’s likely how they got it." Moss said no other fish besides white crappie were found dead in the area of the fish kill, which occurred in the upper section of Lake Tuscaloosa.
Journal Article(s) of Interest
West Nile Virus Viremia in Eastern Chipmunks (Tamias striatus) Sufficient for Infecting Different Mosquitoes
Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 Jun; [Epub ahead of print]
KB Platt et al.
Levels of Abnormal Prion Protein in Deer and Elk with Chronic Wasting Disease
Emerg Infect Dis. 2007 Jun; [Epub ahead of print]
BL Race et al.
European Hedgehogs as Hosts for Borrelia spp., Germany
Infect Dis. 2007 Jun; [Epub ahead of print]
J Skuballa et al.
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