Wildlife Disease News Digest

Numbers could point to disease spread shift
Jackson Hole Star-Tribune - www.jacksonholestartrib.com
18 Apr 2008
C Merrill
Area: Wyoming, USA -- Map It

Some 15 to 20 percent of elk taken by hunters in a couple of Park County herds showed exposure to the brucellosis bacteria, a rate almost on par with those seen on some elk feedgrounds, state wildlife officials say. If the new numbers prove to be accurate, they could mark a shift in the way the disease is being spread in the state. Elk that congregate at feedgrounds are at greater risk of disease exposure because of the animals' close quarters, with brucellosis exposure rates in the neighborhood of 30 percent.

In the past, only about 1 to 2 percent of non-feedground elk -- such as those in Park County -- have tested positive for exposure to brucellosis bacteria, said Hank Edwards, a wildlife disease specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, at a Wyoming Brucellosis Coordination Team meeting Thursday. Game and Fish researchers and other state scientists are surprised by the new data, because the apparent increase in brucellosis exposure has occurred in elk herds that have had no contact with feedground elk.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Elk testing shows disease spike

Deal opens corridor to bison
Jackson Hole News & Guide - www.jacksonholenews.com
18 Apr 2008
Area: Montana, USA

Montana and federal officials announced a deal Thursday to let some bison migrate through a private ranch bordering Yellowstone National Park. The deal will allow a small number of the animals to avoid slaughter under a disease-control program that has claimed more than 3,000 bison since 2000. Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis said the ranch’s owner, Church Universal and Triumphant, agreed to sell their grazing rights and initially allow 25 bison to pass through the property. The deal, estimated at $2.8 million, would let the bison access more than 5,000 acres of federal land outside the park.

Despite criticism from both the livestock industry and bison advocates, Lewis characterized the deal as breaking an eight-year impasse on one of the National Park Service’s most divisive wildlife issues. “Until today, bison were never allowed to use that space,” she said. All other bison leaving the park during the winter migration still will be subject to slaughter. Since the fall, a record 1,601 bison have been killed to prevent the spread of the disease brucellosis, which can cause cows to abort their calves.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Mercury In River Moves Into Terrestrial Food Chain Through Spiders Fed To Baby Birds
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com
17 Apr 2008
Area: Virginia, USA

Songbirds feeding near the contaminated South River are showing high levels of mercury, even though they aren’t eating food from the river itself, according to a paper published by William and Mary researchers in the journal Science. Lead author Dan Cristol said his paper has wide-ranging international environmental implications. Mercury is one of the world’s most troublesome pollutants, especially in water. The South River, a major tributary of Virginia’s Shenandoah River, has been under a fish consumption advisory for years, as are some 3,000 other bodies of water in the U.S.

The paper shows high levels of mercury in birds feeding near, but not from, the South River. Cristol and his colleagues also identify the source of the pollutant—mercury-laden spiders eaten by the birds. The Science paper is one of the first, if not the first, to offer scientific documentation of the infiltration of mercury from a contaminated body of water into a purely terrestrial ecosystem.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Science Podcast - 18 April 2008 [includes interviews on aquatic mercury in terrestrial food webs]

Cited Article
The Movement of Aquatic Mercury Through Terrestrial Food Webs - Science - DA Cristol et al. [online abstract only]

Road Kill Losses Add Up, Taxing Amphibians And Other Animals
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com
16 Apr 2008
Area: Indiana, USA

When frogs hit the road, many croak. Researchers found more than 65 animal species killed along a short stretch of roads in a Midwestern county. Nearly 95 percent of the total dead were frogs and other amphibians, suggesting that road-related death, or road-kill, possibly contributes to their worldwide decline, a trend that has concerned and puzzled scientists for decades.

The Purdue University study found that habitat along roadsides heavily influences road-kill. More than 75 percent of the carcasses originated alongside a one-mile stretch of road that traverses a wildlife-friendly wetland known as Celery Bog in West Lafayette, Ind. "On hot summer nights when it rains, there are literally thousands of frogs out there," said Andrew DeWoody, a Purdue researcher who led the study in Tippecanoe County, home to the university.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Article
Vertebrate road mortality predominantly impacts amphibians - Herpetological Conservation and Biology - BJ Glista et al. [free full-text available][pdf]

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS