Wildlife Disease News Digest

Muzzle Puzzle
Bucks County Courier Times - www.phillyburbs.com
03 Mar 2008
S Larsen
Photo courtesy of Al Hicks; New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation
Area: Pennsylvania United States

A mysterious disease killing tens of thousands of bats in the Northeast has not afflicted bats in Pennsylvania, but researchers say that doesn't mean the state's bat population is in the clear. So far, signs of the disease have not been spotted in bats in the Durham Mine Bat Hibernaculum in Upper Bucks, according to a spokesman from the state's game commission. But the worry remains that the mysterious disease will continue to spread. Barbosa and other Pennsylvania bat researchers hope the disease can be contained before it spreads here and are keeping a wary eye on the Durham cave.

As the state's second largest bat hibernation site, the Durham mine is home to 5,000 to 10,000 hibernating bats of at least six species. Meanwhile, bat biologists, wildlife researchers and other specialists continue to work together to unravel the mystery of the condition, which has never been seen before. “I'm on a listserv for people who work with bats, and it's an almost daily item of conversation,” Barbosa said. “Just about everybody's doing something — blood work, virology, exploring the inside of caves, using thermal cameras to take profiles of hibernating bats. Frankly, no one has a clue what it is. People who work with bats are extremely upset about this.”

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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>>>Bats in Northeast Are Mysteriously Dying

Uganda: Ebola - Bundibugyo Won't Give Up Tasty Monkey
AllAfrica.com (Source: The Monitor)
01 Mar 2008
J Nafula
Area: Uganda

Titus Lucretius Carus, a first century philosopher said oneman's meat may be another's poison. But Dr Emmanuel Otaala and Mr Joseph Matte could not remember this when they met to celebrate the end of the Ebola outbreak at Boma grounds in Bundibugyo last Wednesday. Mr Matte, the MP for Bughendera County, used the occassion to remind the public not to heed calls to abandon their delicacy - monkey meat or enkende as the Batooro love to call it. Bundibugyo was the epicentre of Ebola that hit Uganda late last year.

In an attempt to establish the origin of the deadly Ebola virus, the government has pointed a finger at the Bundibugyo resident's insatiable hunger for monkey meat. President Museveni went further when he ordered an investigation to establish the cause of Ebola and warned the people of Bundibugyo to desist from eating monkey meat - their delicacy. This and the numerous reports seem to have angered Mr Matte who wasted no time in telling off the government , represented by Dr Otaala, the state minister for Primary healthcare to get off their tasty monkey. "I am a Mukonzo from the mountains and time immemorial, people here have been eating monkeys and other animals including those bitten by snakes but they are still living," asserted the MP.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
03 Mar 2008
Area: United States

USGS and a network of partners across the country work on documenting wildlife mortality events in order to provide timely and accurate information on locations, species and causes of death. This information was updated on Feb 26, 2008 on the USGS National Wildlife Health Center web page, New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide. Quarterly Mortality Reports are also available from this page. These reports go back to 1995.

>>> Updated Wildlife Mortality Event Table

Fresh call to cull badgers
North-West Evening Mail - www.nwemail.co.uk
03 Mar 2008
Area: United Kingdom

The NFU is urging the government to sanction a badger cull. The call comes after a House of Commons Select Committee, chaired by Michael Jack MP, concluded that badger culling would help eradicate the threat of bovine tuberculosis. The Select Committee’s overall assessment of the government’s TB policy is that it is “not working effectively”, as evidenced by the fact that the number of cattle slaughtered because of TB is “doubling every four to five years”. NFU’s chairman for the North West, Alistair Mackintosh, said: “This is long overdue. For too long the government has been using science to fit the politics. There is a reservoir of this disease in wildlife and it needs to be tackled if we have serious intentions about tackling TB.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Zoo launches campaign to save endangered frogs
Toronto Star - www.thestar.com
29 Feb 2008
J Smith

The Toronto Zoo chose “leap day” to raise awareness about an unprecedented crisis threatening amphibians around the world. Cute gimmicks aside, zoo workers and local politicians gathered in front of frogs, toads and reporters today to speak about the global amphibian crisis and what they are trying to do about it. “This is an extinction crisis that is unprecedented in the history of the world,” said Bill Peters, national director of the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Frogs and their ilk have managed just fine for the past 360 million years, but now as many as half of the 6,000 known amphibian species on earth face dying out within the next few decades.

Pollution, loss of natural habitats and over-harvesting continue to be problems, but the big killer around the world is actually an infection called chytrid fungus. “That fungus attacks the skin of the frogs. It can no longer take in oxygen or water and they die,” said Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Toronto Zoo. About 120 species have already gone extinct and many others are threatened around the world, largely due to the disease, which originated in South Africa about a decade ago. The disease is especially difficult to deal with because it attacks the animals even when they live in natural conservation areas.

>>>FULL ARTICLE [includes video]

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>>>Amphibians doomed, local biologists say

Wildlife under threat: Besides poaching, loss of habitat, toxins cause deaths
The Tribune - www.tribuneindia.com
02 Mar 2008
V Sharma
Area: India

It is not just India’s national animal tiger which is in danger at the hands of poachers in the country. Officials figures suggest that the future of other animals in the wild - elephants, rhinos and critically-endangered gharials - is also not so safe despite efforts being put in by the Centre and state governments. Between December 2007 and February 2008, as many as 105 gharials have been reported dead. However, the reason for the decline in their numbers is attributed to possibility of nephro-toxin entering the food chain and loss of habitat due to illegal sand mining.

Official records reveal that in the past three years, the number of poaching cases related to elephants has been steadily rising. During 2004-05, 18 elephants were poached, during 2005-06, the number of dead tuskers was 16 and in 2006-07, it increased up to 23. The 2007 Census said there are 18,663 elephants in the country, minus the Northeastern states. Similar has been the case with rhinos. As per the information released by the Assam Government, 18 rhinos were poached in 2007 and four rhinos have already fallen prey to the poachers’ greed till date in 2008 in the Kaziranga National Park and adjacent areas in Assam.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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