Wildlife Disease News Digest

Scentless Spring? Flower Smells Blocked by Pollution
National Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com
11 Apr 2008
B Handwerk
Area: United States

Soon it may be harder to stop and smell the roses. Growing levels of air pollution from power plants and automobiles have reduced the potency of flower fragrances by up to 90 percent as compared with pre-industrial levels in the United States, a new study has found. The trend is unpleasant for human noses, but may be life-threatening for pollinators such as bees and butterflies. "Many insects find flowers by detecting the scent produced by those flowers," said study lead author Jose D. Fuentes, an environmental scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

. . . With bee populations dropping dramatically in many parts of the world, could these missing scents be a factor? Scientists trying to pinpoint the cause of bee declines have variously blamed viruses, mites, bacteria, pesticides, and even cell-phone radiation. Jay Evans, an entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's bee research laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, was intrigued by the new study but hasn't seen bee behavior that suggests trouble with scents. "Over the last couple of summers I don't think the bees in this area were bringing in much less food," he said.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Shorebird Numbers Crash In Australia
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: University of New South Wales)
13 Apr 2008
Photo courtesy of iStockphoto/Harry Kolenbrander
Area: Australia

One of the world's great wildlife spectacles is under way across Australia: as many as two million migratory shorebirds of 36 species are gathering around Broome before an amazing 10,000-kilometre annual flight to their northern hemisphere breeding grounds. But an alarming new study has revealed that both these migrants and Australia's one million resident shorebirds have suffered a massive collapse in numbers over the past 25 years. A large scale aerial survey study covering the eastern third of the continent by researchers at the University of New South Wales has identified that migratory shorebirds populations there plunged by 73% between 1983 and 2006, while Australia's 15 species of resident shorebirds - such as avocets and stilts - have declined by 81%.

The study is published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation. It is the first long-term analysis of shorebird populations and health at an almost a continental scale and reveals a disturbing trend of serious long-term decline. "This is a truly alarming result: in effect, three-quarters of eastern Australia's millions of resident and migratory shorebirds have disappeared in just one generation," says an author of the report, Professor Richard Kingsford. "The wetlands and resting places that they rely on for food and recuperation are shrinking virtually all the way along their migration path, from Australia through Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and up through Asia into China and Russia."

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Long-term trends of shorebird populations in eastern Australia and impacts of freshwater extraction

Bovine TB objective: Don't be like Michigan
Duluth News Tribune - www.duluthnewstribune.com
12 Apr 2008
S Wente
Area: Minnesota United States

If Minnesota does not aggressively combat bovine tuberculosis, some worry it could end up like Michigan. That state several years ago tried to tackle the disease that appears in deer and cattle by building fences to separate animals, Sen. Rod Skoe said, but it did not kill herds or shoot deer that may carry the disease. As a result, Michigan still has bovine TB problems. “We know what not to do – that,” said Skoe, a Clearbrook Democrat who wants Minnesota to spend more than $6 million to fight bovine TB. The Minnesota Legislature is just one front in what state officials say is an aggressive fight against the respiratory disease found in cattle and deer.

Elsewhere, experts are shooting deer in northwestern Minnesota, there are plans to study bovine TB at a Grand Rapids research station, farmers must conduct more animal testing and state officials are seeking to have most of the state declared free of bovine TB. “This is a tough situation for everybody to deal with, but I think everyone in the state recognizes the significance of this disease, that is does require an aggressive action,” said Joe Martin, Minnesota’s bovine TB coordinator. Bovine TB has been found in 11 northwestern Minnesota cattle herds since 2005. It also has been found in 17 deer. The disease is transmitted by contact between the two species.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>State expands bovine TB control zone in northwestern Minn....

A symbol for Puerto Rico
The Bronx Beat - www.bronxbeat.org
11 Apr 2008
A Larson
Photo courtesy of A Larson
Area: New York United States

Frogs do not usually inspire national pride, but the coqui drew a large crowd, including Puerto Rican-born zoo visitors last week when the Bronx Zoo unveiled its newest exhibit. The chirping frogs are an unofficial symbol of Puerto Rico, which is their only native habitat. Cultural connection aside, bringing the frogs to the zoo was important because amphibians are rapidly dying in the wild from a lethal fungus, said Melissa Mohring, 27, Bronx Zoo wild animal keeper. Experts are calling the fungus a “global amphibian crisis,” she said.

The fungus, Chytrid, kills amphibians within two days of exposure by attacking their skin. Because amphibians use their skin for respiration, their breathing is severely compromised by the disease. Scientists say the fungus is most likely transmitted directly from frogs to tadpoles or through infected water. “They are comparing this die-off of amphibians to that of the dinosaurs,” Mohring said, “Because there are so many species becoming extinct all at once.”

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Group cites climate change in fight for frog protections

Bird flu virus may have mutated
The Times of India - timesofindia.indiatimes.com
13 Apr 2008
K Sinha
Area: Jiangsu China

The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus has passed from human-to-human in China, raising fears that the virus may have started to mutate. In a highly rare case, genetic tests on a 52-year-old father diagnosed with bird flu in the Jiangsu province of China has shown that he was infected by H5N1 from his 24-year-old dying son. Both members of the family were diagnosed with avian influenza infection within a week of each other in December 2007. However, scientists from China's Centre for Disease Control and Prevention who said that the father got infected while caring for his son in the hospital reported in the 'Lancet' on Tuesday that the transmission was "limited and non-sustained", allaying fears that the virus is evolving fast to pass easily from human-to-human to cause the next big influenza pandemic.

Experts predict that around 20% of the total world population will fall ill during the next pandemic and 28 million may need hospital care. To be doubly sure against a sustained transmission, China has tested 91 people the two men had come into close contact with. None of these people have been found to be infected. Speaking to TOI from New York, Dr David Nabarro, one of the world's best known influenza scientists and the UN coordinator for avian and human influenza, said, "Such instances of sporadic human-human transmission are expected and are reminders that we should maintain maximum amount of vigilance. We can't predict when and where the virus will mutate to cause the next big pandemic. However, what's relieving is that the virus did not show sustained infection."

>>>FULL ARTICLE

>>>H5N1 Bird Flu Hits South Korea Once Again

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo courtesy of Joe Cornish/NTPL