Wildlife Disease News Digest

A vanishing icon? Minnesota moose are in trouble
Duluth News Tribune – www.dl-online.com
23 Feb 2008
Location: Minnesota, USA

Minnesota’s moose are in trouble. The population of this iconic mammal that symbolizes the northern Minnesota landscape is in decline. If the decline continues at current rates, Northeastern Minnesota moose could be down to a remnant population within 50 years, biologists say.

And the state’s leading moose research biologist thinks a warming climate may be the most significant factor in that decline.

Other factors — winter ticks, liver flukes and brainworm among them — may be the final cause of a moose’s death. But those parasites and other diseases are always prevalent in a moose population, Lenarz said. He believes heat stress may weaken moose enough that their resistance is lowered, eventually allowing disease and parasites to kill them.

Mike Schrage, wildlife biologist with the Fond du Lac Band, cautions that a correlation between warmer summers and moose mortality does not imply a cause-and-effect relationship.

But, he adds, “I believe that climate is certainly impacting moose and is stressing moose.”

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Cholera killed birds, not sewage, state officials say
Marin Independent Journal – www.marinij.com
M Prado
22 Feb 2008
Location: Richardson Bay, California, USA

Tests of dead birds that washed ashore at Richardson Bay indicate avian cholera is partially to blame, and the state Department of Fish and Game now believes the die-off had nothing to do with two massive sewage spills.

Since Jan. 26, some 294 dead birds have turned up on beaches around Richardson Bay. The deaths coincided with the first of two massive spills of raw sewage by the Southern Marin Sewerage Agency.

State officials said Friday they do not believe the die-off and sewage spills are connected.
"We think it has to do with other causes," said Carol Singleton, Fish and Game spokeswoman. "We are not finding a linkage to the sewer spills."

The recent tests looked at eight birds, two of which had avian cholera, a bufflehead and great scaup. Previous results showed another bufflehead had avian cholera.

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Britain is hotspot of new germs says new study
Telegraph – www.telegraph..co.uk
21 Feb 2008
R Highfield

Novel infectious diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) and Ebola are emerging more often to cause epidemics, according to a study that concludes that Britain has become a global hotspot of new germs.

A breakthrough has been made in the understanding of what causes diseases like Aids to emerge, and how to predict which place will mark the birth of the next pandemic, which are now shown to have increased in number over the past half century.

The world is squandering its resources to fight emerging diseases, which are too focused on rich, northern hemisphere countries, according to the new analysis.

However, the study reveals that Britain is a hotspot of new diseases, both from animals such as mad cow disease and in terms of the emergence of drug resistant superbug strains, from E coli to MRSA, reflecting the nation's high population density, industrial farming methods and the widespread use of antibiotics.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

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State Pulse: Uttar Pradesh: Reason: Unknown - 90 gharials have died in two months- report by Kirtiman Awasthi, Etawah
Central Chronicle – www.centralchronicle.com
23 Feb 2008
Location: Uttar Pradesh, India

The mystery of gharial deaths in the Chambal waters continues to elude scientists.

More than 90 of the critically endangered species have died since early December, all within a stretch of about 25 km of the river flowing along the Uttar Pradesh- Madhya Pradesh border. Nobody seems to know the reason. In a January 28 meeting of the Crisis Management Group, set up by the union government to look into possible causes and draw an action plan, veterinarians and conservationists could not pinpoint the causes of deaths.

. . . Again lack of baseline data comes in the way. Huchzermeyer says he wants to study a live, healthy gharial for having baseline data but the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, does not allow this because gharial is a Schedule I species. On February 2, vets were allowed to collect urine and blood samples, which won't provide much useful data.

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Amphibians under threat of extinction
Daily News – www.nydailynew.com
A Sacks
23 Feb 2008

Scientists say amphibians - cold-blooded animals that include frogs, toads, salamanders, newts and the lesser known caecilians - are under grave threat of decline and extinction worldwide, and it is time to act now to save them.

"It's a huge warning sign that we should pause and take notice," said Jennifer Pramuk, the Bronx Zoo's curator of herpetology, and lifelong amphibian enthusiast.

While climate change, habitat destruction and pollution are factors in their rapid disappearance, Pramuk says the main suspect is the onset of a deadly disease - the chytrid fungus - now found in frog populations around the world.

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS