April 4, 2008

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo fighting to save the frogs
Plain Dealer - www.cleveland.com
01 Apr 2008
F Henry
Photo courtesy of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Area: Ohio United States

2008: Leap Year and Year of the Frog. Coincidence or conspiracy? Neither -- just clever timing by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which is staging the Year of the Frog. Association members, including the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, have committed this year to stirring up interest in the plight of the world's amphibians -- frogs, salamanders, newts, toads and caecilians, which look like worms or eels and live in tropical areas. Nearly one-third of the world's 6,000 species are in danger of extinction, according to the World Conservation Union.

Scientists blame a confluence of factors, including an infectious fungal disease, global warming and loss of habitat. Amphibians infected with a deadly form of chytrid fungus display neurological problems and sloughing skin. The carrier might be the African clawed frog, sold as pets and used in medical research and apparently unaffected by the disease. There is no known treatment. "Every amphibian on the planet is in danger of going the way of the dinosaurs," said Geoff Hall, general curator at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. "It's a crisis of the magnitude of the dinosaurs going extinct."





Skunk Deaths Not Due to Rabies or Distemper, Tests Show
UC Davis News - www.news.ucdavis.edu
02 Apr 2008
Area: California United States

Rabies and distemper appear not to be the cause of death for dozens of Northern California skunks, reports a veterinary scientist at the University of California, Davis. "We want to reassure members of the public that the skunks we tested, which were also found near a dead or dying fox and raccoon in the Redding area, did not die from rabies or distemper," said Janet Foley a veterinary researcher who studies the ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases in the Center for Vectorborne Diseases. The center is a joint research venture between the School of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

"We are now working aggressively with the California Department of Fish and Game to identify what did cause the deaths of these animals, looking closely at possible toxins and parasites," she said. "It's important to identify what is causing this unusual die-off because the skunk can be a sentinel species that often alerts us to environmental health problems." Foley's laboratory studies the ecology and epidemiology of infectious diseases in animal and human populations, with a special interest in emerging infectious diseases among wildlife. Her graduate students Mourad Gabriel and Greta Wengert are spearheading this investigation.





Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
03 Apr 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 Apr 01, 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.




Almanac: Sharpshooters may begin using helicopter to thin deer herd
Minneapolis Star Tribune - www.startribune.com
30 Mar 2008
D Smith
Area: Minnesota United States

Federal sharpshooters soon might begin using a helicopter to shoot deer in northwestern Minnesota to further thin the herd there because of the outbreak of bovine tuberculosis. And a special spring hunt for deer hunters also might be offered, Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Mark Holsten said Friday. Those deer-thinning methods are in addition to current efforts, which include a dozen federal sharpshooters on the ground. Officials also are allowing landowners without special permits to shoot any deer on sight.

"This is extremely serious,'' Holsten said. "We're going to go in to try to knock that herd down, particularly in the core area. The concentration of deer is just incredible, especially when you look at how many we already have shot.'' The aerial shooting could begin as soon as this week, Holsten said. There are an estimated five deer per square mile in the 140-square-mile area that is managed for bovine TB. Eleven cattle herds have tested positive since 2005, all in Roseau or Beltrami counties. Seventeen deer have tested positive.





Scientific studies and surveillance will continue as DEQ, DGIF search for answers to sick fish, kills on James, Shenandoah
OurValley.org
03 Apr 2008
Area: Virginia United States

The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) are directing numerous scientific studies and surveillance programs this spring in their continued effort to learn why fish are getting lesions and sores, and others are dying on the James River and Shenandoah River water systems in western portion of Virginia, according to a news release from the DEQ. Unexplained fish kills and episodes of fish with sores and lesions have occurred during each of the last four springs in the Shenandoah River system. In 2007, similar events also occurred in the upper James (including in Botetourt) and Cowpasture rivers. The fish kills since 2004 have been unusual, affecting mainly adult smallmouth bass and sunfish. Slow fish die-offs have begun in early April and continued through May.

Despite the efforts of many fish health and water chemistry experts, the causes of the fish kills remain unknown. Studies by state and federal scientists and several university researchers during these fish kills have focused on water chemistry and the health of fish and other aquatic life, the news release says. Water quality studies to date have targeted nutrients, ammonia and selected organic compounds, but they have not identified any specific chemicals at levels that would be expected to cause the fish kills. Fish health findings suggest that multiple stressors may be involved, because the symptoms do not clearly indicate any single cause.





Avian influenza (54): Switzerland, OIE - Archive Number 20080403.1223
ProMED-mail - wwwpromedmail.org
02 Apr 2008
Area: Switzerland

Summary
Report type: Immediate notification (final report)
Start date: 22 Feb 2008
Date of 1st confirmation of the event: 26 Mar 2008
Date submitted to OIE: 31 Mar 2008
Date event resolved: 1 Apr 2008
Reason for notification: reoccurrence of a listed disease
Date of previous occurrence: June 2006
Causal agent: highly pathogenic avian influenza virus
Serotype: H5N1
Nature of diagnosis: Laboratory (advanced)
This event pertains to the whole country

New outbreaks
Summary of outbreaks Total outbreaks: 1
Outbreak location and affected population
Luzern (Oberkirch, Oberkirch): 2 tufted ducks (_Aythya fuligula_), one
common pochard (_Aythya ferina_), one mallard (_Anas platyrhynchos_) and 2
great cormorants (_Phalacrocorax carbo_) that were caught in a bird fyke
[net held open with hoops. - Mod.SH] on Lake Sempach.





OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS

at Friday, April 04, 2008

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