Wildlife Disease News Digest

Two More Hawaiian Birds on Brink of Extinction
Environment News Service - ens-newswire.com
15 Oct 2007
Area: Hawaii United States

A national bird protection group and a Hawaiian bird expert are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend protection to two increasingly rare birds found only on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai. Population surveys conducted this spring show that these species may be on the brink of extinction. The two birds - the akikiki and the akeke'e - are not adequately protected by existing regulatory mechanisms, the petitioners say. The American Bird Conservancy and Dr. Eric VanderWerf submitted a petition Thursday requesting protection under the Endangered Species Act for the akeke'e and the akikiki, two Hawaiian honeycreepers.

He is still engaged in keeping the unique birds of Hawaii from vanishing into extinction. He says more research is needed to determine why populations of the akikiki and the akeke'e a have been in steep decline since 1970, although other Hawaiian birds are known to have gone extinct due to a combination of habitat loss and degradation caused by invasive alien plants and browsing and rooting by feral pigs, diseases spread by introduced mosquitoes, predation by alien mammals such as rats, and catastrophes such as hurricanes. "Recent surveys show that the akikiki and the akeke'e are in serious trouble," said George Fenwick, president of American Bird Conservancy.

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Announcements 2007: Interactive Map of ProMED Reports Available - Archive Number 20071015.3378
ProMED-mail - promedmail.org
11 Oct 2007

A mapping system for visualizing ProMED-mail reports is now available. This system, developed by HealthMap in collaboration with ProMED-mail, automatically places links to ProMED-mail reports on a world map. Clicking on a map marker will access a list of reports corresponding to the selected location. These in turn can be clicked to link back to the original ProMED-mail report. The map can be zoomed and panned, and specific diseases and date ranges selected. In some countries, reports are mapped to the state or province level (with increased global geographic resolution in progress).

>>>ProMED HealthMap

Deadly Deer Virus
WHAS 11 News - whas11.com
15 Oct 2007
Area: Kentucky United States

A prominent Kentuckiana outdoorsman, Jim Strader, says a deadly deer virus is worse than the state is reporting. As Joe Arnold found out, Strader is sending out that warning to hunters just four weeks from gun season. The state says there’s no cause for alarm despite 4,000 confirmed deer deaths from EHD. But, popular outdoorsman and radio host Jim Strader told Joe Arnold that the state dropped the ball as the deer were dying, and he is sounding the alarm.

“If they had had their conservation officers out in the field when the die off occurred, I think the numbers would be astronomical compared to what they’re reporting,” said Strader. He went on to say that “ The farmers have been reporting to me on the radio show for weeks now, about finding 15, 20, 27 dead deer when they harvest their corn and soybeans.” Biting midges or gnats spread epizootic Hemorrhaging Disease. It attacks blood vessels, causing deer to hemorrhage to death.

>>>FULL ARTICLE AND VIDEO

Related Article
>>>Virus Found in Illinois Deer Population

Project Could Help Monitor Herd Health
Lexington Herald-Leader - kentucky.com
14 Oct 2007
Area: Kentucky United States

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's pilot project to make compost from roadkilled deer, wood chips and horse muck could help wildlife biologists monitor Kentucky's deer herd for Chronic Wasting Disease. "We could cooperate with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources by providing them with tissue samples," said Steve Higgins, a research specialist in biosystems and agricultural engineering at the University of Kentucky, who is providing technical assistance to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Higgins said he has applied for a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 4 in Atlanta, Ga., that could be used to pay for taking brain and spinal cord tissue samples from the deer highway workers pick up from state roads. For the past five years, state wildlife biologists have been taking tissue samples from about 2,500 hunter-killed deer as part of their CWD monitoring efforts.

>>>FULL ARTICLE