Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Few survivors after 500 ducks take dip in Alberta oilsands waste
CBC News - www.cbc.ca
30 Apr 2008
Area: Alberta Canada -- Map It

Workers at a wildlife rehabilitation centre outside Edmonton worked to save a handful of oil-coated ducks Wednesday while environmentalists, politicians and Syncrude officials argued about who is responsible for the latest black mark against the province's oilsands development. About 500 ducks landed Monday on a tailings pond filled with waste from Syncrude's oilsands operation at the Aurora North Site mine, north of Fort McMurray. Only a handful of birds survived the dip in the toxic water. Most of the ducks were too heavily coated with oil and waste to survive.

Three of the surviving birds are being treated at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Edmonton by volunteers. The birds arrived from Fort McMurray Tuesday at an Edmonton emergency veterinary clinic, and were sent to the rehab centre Wednesday morning. "We need to get some food and water into them, and we need to get them warmed up,"said Kim Blomme, the shelter's founder. She said the centre had been told to expect two more birds.

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Pendleton bats sent to lab were not found dead, DNR says
Charleston Gazette - sundaygazettemail.com
30 Apr 2008
R Steelhammer
Area: West Virginia United States

Two bats from a Pendleton County cave now being examined by a wildlife disease laboratory in Wisconsin were bearing a small amount of what appeared to be a white fungus, but did not appear to be exhibiting symptoms of white-nose syndrome - a disease that has killed tens of thousands of hibernating bats in the northeast. The bats were collected at Trout Cave in early April. No dead bats were found at the cave, as previously reported, but two live bats had a very small amount of what appeared to be a fungus on them - one on the ear and the other on its wrist, according to Craig Stihler, the Division of Natural Resources' endangered species coordinator.

"We debated as to whether or not we should collect these bats, but decided we needed to have them looked at by one of the labs working on white-nose syndrome," Stihler said. After being euthanized, "they were sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin." While the bats had little fat remaining on their bodies, that condition is not unusual for bats at the end of their hibernation period. The weights of the bats were within the range normally observed at this time of year.

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West, Central Africa seen as major source of next new disease
AFP - afp.google.com
30 Apr 2008
Area: Africa

West and Central Africa are emerging as the major potential sources for the next new infectious disease, a study released on Wednesday said. Deforestation in these regions is forcing wild animals that are a natural host for pathogens into ever smaller areas and into ever likelier contact with fast-growing human populations, it said. The paper, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, looks at how new, killer diseases such as AIDS, Ebola and bird flu have leapt the species barrier to humans in the past three decades. Its authors found that closely related primates -- monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas and humans -- pose the biggest risk of "host shift" as they share similar biology and immune responses, and are vulnerable to many of the same microbes.

The similarity is especially strong with chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, with whom we shared a common ancestor about 8.6 million years ago. Humans are almost four times likelier to share pathogens with chimpanzees than with colobus monkeys, which branched from the family tree 34.4 million years ago, says the study. The virus for acquired immune deficiency syndrome was probably transmitted to humans from a chimpanzee infected with a simian form of AIDS, previous studies have said. More than 25 million people have died of the disease since it was first reported in 1981.

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Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans [Editorial]
EVliving - www.evliving.com
30 Apr 2008
Area: United States

Studies of several bird species, including the endangered California Condor, have provided extensive documentation of the health hazard posed to birds that ingest lead ammunition residues in the remains of gun-killed animals. Now, new studies suggest that humans who eat game shot with lead ammunition may also be at risk. A conference to further explore these links,“Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition: Implications for Wildlife and Humans,” sponsored by The Peregrine Fund, will be held May 12-15, 2008, at Boise State University. “We’ve been studying the effects of condor lead ingestion for years,” said Rick Watson, Vice President of The Peregrine Fund, a conservation organization that leads the California Condor recovery program in Arizona.

“Condors are sickened and some die from eating the remains of shot animals. The possibility that other species, including humans, are also at risk prompted us to organize this conference.” . . . “The lead studies have once again shown us that we ignore the plight of birds at our own peril,” said Dr. Michael Fry, Director of Conservation Advocacy at American Bird Conservancy. “Condors, eagles, ravens, and other wildlife have given us advanced warning of a problem that we are now learning may also have human health consequences.” The Peregrine Fund will present results of its own recent investigation on lead in hunter-killed animals at the conference. The group is studying the amount of lead in venison from deer shot with standard lead bullets, which fragment into hundreds of tiny pieces upon impact.

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Dolphins in Lake Ponchartrain may be at risk
The Times-Picayune - www.nola.com
29 Apr 2008
M Schleifstein
Photo courtesy of Chris Granger
Area: Louisiana United States -- Map It

A team of National Marine Fisheries Service scientists are searching the eastern half of Lake Pontchartrain this week for a pod of 35 dolphins they fear are endangered by the lake's rapidly freshening water. The opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway on April 11 has brought a flood of fresh water, which can cause blotchy skin lesions in dolphins, who thrive in saltier water, leading to illness or death. On Tuesday, a team of scientists found only 3 parts-per-thousand of salt in water along the lake's north shore just west of the bridges, and only .9 parts-per-thousand on the south shore.

The mammals need the saltier water to survive, said biologist Kevin Barry, who is stationed at the Fisheries Service marine laboratory in Pascagoula, Miss. When the salt content of the lake's water dropped because of spring rains last year, many of the dolphins experienced similar lesions that were reported to the federal agency, which has been monitoring the endangered species since then. The animals seemed to recover as the lake became more brackish during the year, and this spring, at least two newborn calves were spotted among the adult dolphins, Barry said.

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