February 7, 2008

Diseases From Pets Endanger Threatened Wildlife
Current Results - www.currentresults.com
07 Feb 2008
L Osborn

Infectious diseases have contributed to at least 31 extinctions worldwide and currently jeopardize 43 threatened mammal species. Parasites from domesticated animals especially pose a serious treat to the continuing existence of some of their wild relatives. Among the mammals listed by IUCN (The World Conservation Union) as being threatened by diseases, 88% are either carnivores or ungulates. These animals are related to dogs, cats, cattle, goats, sheep and pigs.

Parasites threaten eight species of wild canines and three kinds of felines. Devastating infections are also a concern for 23 species of hoofed mammals related to cows, sheep, goats or pigs. In comparison, diseases do not endanger any of the 1024 species of bats, and affect only one of 2041 species of rodents. In their analysis of IUCN Red List information on threatened wildlife, researchers conclude that a species is at highest risk of becoming decimated by disease simply if it's related to domesticated animals.






Eisele: Baiting, feeding of deer issue again promises to heat up
The Capital Times - www.madison.com
06 Feb 2008
T Eisele
Area: Wisconsin United States

The question of whether baiting and feeding of deer should be banned will not go away. Opponents like to say they are accepted practices, and they are already banned in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Zones. True, indeed. But just as driving a car without seat belts used to be a standard accepted practice, times have changed. And new disease concerns should make baiters and feeders think again about what could happen.

Wisconsin is the site of the first known outbreak of CWD in a wild deer herd east of the Mississippi River, and two neighboring states are battling Bovine tuberculosis in their wild deer herds. Realizing that disease is a real problem, the Conservation Congress is raising the question again this spring at the annual spring meetings that will be held in every county in the state on April 14. The Congress will ask the public, and that includes not only hunters but everyone who indeed has equal ownership of wildlife in the state, if they "favor action by the Wisconsin State Legislature to ban deer feeding and baiting statewide?" The question is phrased the way it is because it is the legislature, and not the Department of Natural Resources, that has the power to change baiting and feeding laws.




Die-off of bats could hurt area crops
The Boston Globe - www.boston.com
07 Feb 2008
B Daley
Photo courtesy of Nancy Heaslip/New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Area: New York and Vermont United States

. . . Scientists say they are extraordinarily concerned because the disease is already affecting four species - including the Indiana bat, recognized by the federal government as an endangered species - and mortality has reached as high as 97 percent in some caves. In one New York cave, the population crashed from 1,300 bats several years ago to 38 this year. "If we assume only 50 percent decline at the new sites, we are talking hundreds of thousands of bats that could die," said Alan Hicks, a bat specialist with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

Bats hold great ecological importance worldwide. In addition to feeding on insects, they pollinate plants in many places and disperse seeds, though not in New England. The animals can live longer than 30 years and generally have only one offspring a year, meaning that it would take many years for the population to rebound if it crashed. While overall bat numbers in New England are hard to estimate, scientists say the nine bat species here probably number in the hundreds of thousands. Three of the species are migratory and leave in the winter, while others hibernate in old mines or in a line of limestone caves stretching north from the Berkshires through western Vermont and into adjacent New York. Some big brown bats, as many homeowners know, find a warm winter home in buildings.





Hong Kong reserve closed on suspected bird flu case
Reuters - www.reuters.com
06 Feb 2008
J Pomfret
Area: Hong Kong China

Hong Kong shut a bird reserve for three weeks on Wednesday following the discovery of a dead wild egret suspected of carrying bird flu. The carcass of a wild great egret was found on Saturday in northern Yuen Long, near the Mai Po Nature Reserve which has been closed to the public as a precautionary measure. It was being treated as a "suspected case" of H5 avian flu, with further tests being carried out. "We will monitor the situation closely and review the closure period as necessary," said a spokesman for Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.





2008 Research Symposium: "Repiratory Disease in Wild and Domestic Sheep
Hotel 43, Boise, Idaho
March 7-8, 2008

The 2008 Sheep Research Symposium: “Respiratory Disease in Wild and Domestic Sheep,” will be at the Hotel 43, 981 Grove St., Boise. Presentations will cover three general areas: Overview of disease, organisms, and population and stress factors; epidemiology and the “Respiratory Disease Complex”; and environmental and management factors. Sponsors include Nevada Bighorns Unlimited, state of Nevada, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Nevada, and Washington State University. The $100 registration fee includes breaks and lunch both days. Attendance is limited to 100 participants.




OTHER WILDLIFE DISEASE RELATED NEWS




WILDLIFE DISEASE RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Wildlife Disease Management: An Insurmountable Challenge? [pdf]
in Frontiers in wildlife science: linking ecological theory and management applications. 2007. Henke, S.E., A.M. Fedynich, and T.A. Campbell. Pages 279–294. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.

Conservation Strategies and Emergent Diseases: The Case of Upper Respiratory Tract Disease in the Gopher Tortoise [online abstract only]
Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 2007 Dec; 6(2): 170-176
ED McCoy

Global diversity of amphibians (Amphibia) in freshwater [online abstract only]
Hydrobiologia. 2008 Jan. 595: 569-580
M Vences, and J Koehler

Applying the scientific method when assessing the influence of migratory birds on the dispersal of H5N1 [free full-text available]
Virology Journal. 2007 Dec 04; 4: 132
PL Flint

at Thursday, February 07, 2008

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