Wildlife Disease News Digest

Volunteer Diver Discovers Invader in San Juan Islands
UC Davis News - www.news.ucdavis.edu
22 Feb 2008
Area: Washington United States

While diving at one of his favorite sites in Washington State's San Juan Islands, Evergreen College student and recreational scuba diver Nick Brown became alarmed. It was not a diving emergency; his alarm was ecological. "We were swimming along a beautiful wall counting fish when I saw what I thought looked exactly like Ciona savignyi." That would mean trouble. C. savignyi is a nonnative animal that conservationists in the region were on the lookout for.

Brown had learned to identify it, and other potential ecosystem threats, as a participant in a volunteer fish and invertebrate monitoring program supported by UC Davis. "I was fairly certain it was the real thing, even though it had never been reported in the San Juan Islands," said Brown, who took a picture and reported the sighting. Brown is one of 300 people trained in Washington by the UC Davis marine ecosystem program named the SeaDoc Society. The trainings are given in concert with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), an organization of divers and other marine enthusiasts.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Demand for badger cull grows as TB spreads to llama farms
The Times - www.timesonline.co.uk
21 Feb 2008
V Elliott
Area: England United Kingdom

A cull of badgers is vital to halt the spread of bovine tuberculosis throughout the country, a parliamentary inquiry will say. The vaccination of badgers and other species such as deer must also play an important role in reducing outbreaks of the disease, a report from the all-party Select Committee for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will argue. Hilary Benn, the Rural Affairs Secretary, said that he would make a decision on how to control the disease after hearing the views of MPs. The committee’s findings are due to be published on Wednesday. The need for action has become more urgent because the disease has spread to camelids - llamas and alpacas.

. . . The precise details of a cull will be agreed by Defra and Natural England, the wildlife adviser to the Government. It is understood that MPs have suggested that Natural England could grant licences to farmers who need to kill badgers for disease control. It is estimated that there are 500,000 badgers in Britain. No licences have been given out during the past ten years while scientific tests tried to find a link between badgers and cattle in the spread of TB. The report is expected to emphasise a desire to protect badgers and other wildlife as well as cattle. The MPs suggest that until a vaccine that can be injected into wild animals is developed medication should be left in crops to protect them.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Conservation ‘halts cross-species plagues’
The Times - www.timesonline.co.uk
21 Feb 2008
M Henderson

Wildlife-rich “biodiversity hotspots” in the developing world must be better protected to stop the rise of new infectious diseases that could have a deadly impact on mankind, scientists said yesterday. Human encroachment on animal habitats could generate infections that will have the same impact as HIV/ Aids, Sars and H5N1 flu, according to a study that identifies conservation as a key element in the fight to contain new germs. National parks that keep wild animals away from dense human settlements would minimise the chances of bacteria and viruses crossing the species barrier, as happened when HIV and Ebola spread from chimpanzees, the researchers said. “Our analysis highlights the critical importance of conservation work,” said Kate Jones, of the Zoological Society of London, who led the international team.

“Wild places where there is an increasing growth in human density are where there’s an increasing risk of diseases emerging.” Marc Levy, of Columbia University in New York, said: “We are crowding wildlife into ever smaller areas, and human population is increasing. Where those two things meet, that is a recipe for something crossing over.” Conservation programmes, as well as improved disease surveillance, must focus on developing countries, the scientists said.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Cave owners asked to help halt bat disease
Charleston Gazette - wvgazette.com
24 Feb 2008
R Steelhammer
Area: United States

A mysterious and fast-spreading disease that has killed tens of thousands of hibernating bats in caves in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts has prompted wildlife officials in West Virginia to ask the owners of 41 caves known to harbor bat colonies to close them to cavers. Meanwhile, the Friends of Blackwater Canyon has joined with the Vermont-based Center for Biological Diversity and the conservation group Heartwood in petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to close bat hibernation sites to the public in light of the spread of white nose syndrome. Their petition also calls for pulling permits for federal projects like road-building, controlled burns and logging operations that could harm endangered bats.

. . . It's also why the Wildlife Diversity Program is seeking landowner cooperation in closing 41 known bat hibernation caves to spelunkers. When wildlife officials hear back from the landowners, they will post a list of closed caves. "We're trying to be proactive because so much is at stake," said Wallace. "Hopefully, it will turn out that we're being more conservative than necessary." At least seven West Virginia caves have already been closed by their owners or managers because of the white nose syndrome threat, and have been posted on a National Speleological Society closed cave list. The closed caves include Elkhorn Mountain Cave in Grant County; Boar Hole and The Portal in Greenbrier County; and Trout Cave, New Trout Cave, Hamilton Cave and Sinnitt-Thorn Mountain Cave, all in Pendleton County.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Doctors to Treat You … and Your Pet, Too
Miller-McCune - miller-mccune.com
22 Feb 2008
J Melcher
Area: United States

You may share many things with your family pet — your food, your bed, your vacation. But are you ready to share your medical appointments? That could be part of the One World, One Health, One Medicine concept imagined by a group of veterinarians, physicians and public health leaders. Led by past president of the American Veterinary Medical Association Roger Mahr and president of the American Medical Association Ronald Davis, these people are looking at ways of integrating animal and human medicine. They’ve formed the One Health Initiative Task Force, which is considering collaborations ranging from health surveillance to laboratory testing to preventing the spread of diseases between species.

. . . Zoonotic diseases are the main impetus. Some 75 percent of all diseases emerging worldwide are zoonotic, and of the 35 new diseases that have struck since 1980, most are zoonotic, including avian flu, Ebola virus, mad cow disease, monkey pox, West Nile virus, SARS and HIV/AIDS. And as the world becomes smaller, pandemics, bio-terrorism and environmental “hot spots” all get closer to home. Pappaioanou noted that the anthrax scare could have been resolved sooner had veterinary labs been able to help in the analysis of suspected contaminated articles. She noted that there also is a need for integrated disease surveillance to assure sharing of information between human and animal medical providers.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
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