Wildlife Disease News Digest

Buffalo Disease Spreads to Kota Belud Villages
Daily Express
18 Jun 2007
Area: Malaysia

The 12 dead buffaloes in Kota Belud were in Kampin Tenghilan last week has spread to three villages in the neighbouring Kota Belud district, leaving 12 more such animals dead. However, as of Sunday afternoon, no new cases were reported in Kota Belud as well as here, said Department of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry (Dovsai) Penampang officer, Dr Debra Epun.

The Haemorrhagic Septicaemia (HS) disease that killed 24 buffaloes in two villagesung Piasau, Sapang and Dundau, while the 23 dead cases here were in Kampung Lapai and Rondugong, with one more being reported on Saturday in Kampung Malinsau. According to her, officers from the various Dovsai branches had been deployed in a vaccination exercise with the operation room based in Kota Belud. It was the second time that the disease had hit the areas here after 1990.

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Badger Cull Report Welcomed at East Huntspill Wildlife Centre
Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News
18 Jun 2007
D Hemming
Area: United Kingdom
Photo Courtesy of B & H Weekly News

Secret World wildlife rescue founder Pauline Kidner has welcomed the news that badgers are to be spared a widespread cull. A government report into the effectiveness of a cull to stop the spread of tuberculosis amongst cattle - believed to be caused by the movement of badgers - is expected to be rejected. Founder of the animal sanctuary in East Huntspill, Pauline Kidner believes that culling badgers would never be an answer to controlling bovine TB in cattle.

The report - compiled by a group of independent scientific advisors - states that killing badgers is not an option because of the great deal of work ahead in stopping cattle-to-cattle transmission of the disease. Farmers believe that the spreading of the fatal disease by badgers is seriously harming the cattle industry, and the only way to improve things is to licence a widespread cull.

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New Bird Parasite Found in Lake Onalaska
La Crosse Tribune
13 Jun 2007
Area: Wisconsin, USA

Wildlife officials have identified a new variety of snail-borne parasite in Lake Onalaska that can be fatal to certain waterbirds. A coot found dead on Lake Onalaska in spring was infested with about 600 flatworms, or trematodes, identified as Leyogonimus polyoon. The flatworm also was found in a faucet snail collected at Arrowhead Island in Lake Onalaska in May, confirming it as the third snail-borne trematode to reach the upper Mississippi River system, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.

The faucet snail is a European species that has spread into Wisconsin waters, and can carry all three varieties of trematode, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Waterfowl that eat the snails become infested with the flatworms, which can multiply into the tens of thousands. Before 1996, Leyogonimus polyoon had not been found outside eastern Europe until it triggered the death of more than 1,500 coots in the Wolf River system in northcentral Wisconsin.

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