Minister plans pilot badger cull
BBC News - news.bbc.co.uk
08 Apr 2008
Area: Wales United Kingdom
A "targeted cull" of badgers has been announced as part of a plans in Wales to eradicate tuberculosis in cattle. The location of the area and details of the cull have yet to be decided. The Welsh Assembly Government's plan includes a one-off test of all cattle and a review of the compensation system, rural affairs minister Elin Jones announced. Wales' chief veterinary officer said bovine TB was out of control and the current policy was not working.
n a briefing on Tuesday, Christianne Glossop said incidents had increased dramatically over the last decade. Compensation payments to farmers have risen from £1.3m in 1999-2000 to £15.2m in 2007-2008. Farmers have long blamed badgers for spreading bovine TB but animal groups say evidence does not support this. Announcing her decision to AMs in Cardiff Bay, Ms Jones said: "This is a difficult decision to take and it has not been taken lightly.
Lead found in N.D. venison; none yet here
Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter - www.htrnews.com
07 Apr 2008
C McCoy
Area: North Dakota United States
A report from health officials in North Dakota that high levels of lead have been found in venison has the coordinator of the Green Bay Hunt for Hungry program upset. "Hunters at large will tell you that this is an absolute fabricated joke," said Lee Dudek, volunteer coordinator. Health officials in North Dakota told food pantries to throw out donated venison after fragments from lead bullets were found in the meat. Health officials said tests on at least five samples of venison destined for food pantries had high levels of lead, said Sandi Washek, North Dakota's Health Department's lead coordinator. A doctor who conducted his own tests also found lead in 60 percent of 100 samples.
Health officials say children age 6 and younger and pregnant women are at greater risk for lead poisoning, which can cause confusion, learning problems and convulsions, and in severe cases can lead to brain damage and death. Washek said no sickness has been reported from lead-tainted venison. "We're asking all the food pantries to throw it out in a landfill and not throw it out on garbage day, so no one will rifle through it," she said. The report has other states, as well as Wisconsin, investigating possible contamination of lead in venison.
Imported aquacultured reef clams found to have foreign disease
University of Florida News - news.ufl.edu
08 Apr 2008
Area: Florida United States
Vividly colorful giant clams officially called tridacnids decorate many an upscale aquarium. But now experts say they boast an exterior beauty that masks an ugly truth: their potential for carrying foreign diseases. In findings that may impact the reef clam industry as well as international trade, a University of Florida veterinary pathologist recently discovered Perkinsus olseni, an internationally reportable foreign pathogen, in aquacultured clams imported from Vietnam. While not believed to be a threat to human health or other reef aquarium species, the pathogen’s presence concerns scientists as well as aquaculture industry representatives and points out the largely unregulated environment in which the importation of aquacultured reef clams from Asia occurs.
. . . “This is not a zoonotic disease, transmissible to people,” Sheppard said. “No one is going to get sick from this, as far as we know. The problem here is economic and international trade. We know that Perkinsus is a pathogen of aquatic shellfish, and the reason it is so important is that it makes animals very vulnerable to dying when the weather gets hot or when they get stressed in some other way.” She added that a major pathogen known as Perkinsus marinus is already associated with the depletion of major oyster stocks on the Atlantic coast. “It’s indigenous; you can’t avoid it, and we know that particular pathogen is already economically devastating to our shellfish industries,” Sheppard said. “They don’t want this Pacific version of Perkinsus (olseni) to be transported here.”
Colorado State University Scientists Test Nature's Own Filter to Detect Bird Flu in Vietnam [Press Release]
Colorado State University News - newsinfo.colostate.edu
07 Apr 2008
Area: Colorado United States
Recent outbreaks of avian influenza, or bird flu, have become a worldwide concern in light of widespread mortality in domestic poultry and wild aquatic bird species. Scientists are equally concerned about the possibility of an avian influenza pandemic developing in humans. The rapid spread of H5N1 - the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu - to new locations and species has necessitated development of detection and monitoring methods for birds and their aquatic habitats. Colorado State University researchers are traveling this summer to Vietnam, where severe outbreaks of H5N1 have occurred, to complete two separate studies on detecting avian flu viruses in water and in land bird species.
One method to detect the virus is by testing water in areas where outbreaks are common. While mechanical filters are effective at concentrating and detecting the virus in water, using a large number of the filters in the field can be costly. Instead, Colorado State and U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists have been using a natural filter to detect and quantify AI viruses in water. Preliminary lab experiments by Kate Huyvaert, assistant professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at CSU, and Alan Franklin from the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center indicate that freshwater clams accumulate AI viruses in their tissues when they filter water contaminated with virus.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
- USGS report cites the many challenges facing Bay's recovery; EPA directs pollution cuts for locomotives, ships, ferries; and more...
- Houston Chronicle Shannon Tompkins column: Suburbanites getting their fill of pork
- Fish Hatchery Controversy Takes On New Significance As Wild Chinook Salmon Populations Crash
- PHOTO IN THE NEWS: Birdfeeders Can Both Help And Harm Bird Populations
- Harmful Algae Takes Advantage Of Global Warming: More Algae Blooms Expected
- Indian Lions Moving out of Gir Sanctuary
- Bovine TB cases prompt federal restrictions on state herds
- Animal Rabies Alert; Pinal County Public Health Services Advisory
- Easter Bush Research Consortium to Tackle Key Animal Health Concerns
- Malaysian wildlife officials save wok-bound monitor lizards
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Avian Pathology - April 2008
Volume 37, Issue 02
Experimentally increased group diversity improves disease resistance in an ant species
Ecology Letters. 2008; [Epub ahead of print][onlne abstract only]
A Reber et al.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 in ducks in the Northern part of Cameroon
Vet Microbiol. 2008 Feb 16 [Epub ahead of print]
R Njouom et al.
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