TOP STORIES
Researchers Find Human Virus in ChimpanzeesNewsWise - www.newswise
03 Jun 2008
Newswise — After studying chimpanzees in the wilds of Tanzania’s Mahale Mountains National Park for the past year as part of a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Virginia Tech researcher Dr. Taranjit Kaur and her team have produced powerful scientific evidence that chimpanzees are becoming sick from viral infectious diseases they have likely contracted from humans.
In an article to be published in the August issue (available on-line in June) of the American Journal of Primatology featuring a special section on “Disease Transmission, Ecosystems Health and Great Apes Research,” Dr. Kaur, an assistant professor in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology at Virginia Tech, will report the results of extensive field studies conducted in the jungles of Africa.
7 Condors Poisoned by Lead; One Dies
New York Times – www.nytimes.com (source: Associated Press)
04 Jun 2008
Location: Bitter Creek NWR, San Joaquin Valley, California, USA - Map It
Seven endangered California condors, about 20 percent of the population in Southern California, have been found to have lead poisoning.
The birds started turning up sick about a month ago during random trappings at Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge in the San Joaquin Valley.
One of the birds died during treatment at the Los Angeles Zoo, and six others are still being treated there.
Officials do not yet know the source of the contamination, but a United States Fish and Wildlife Service official said the birds had probably been poisoned by eating the carcasses of animals shot by hunters.
Salmonella In Garden Birds Responsive To Antibiotics
Science Daily – www.sciencedaily.com
02 Jun 2008
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that Salmonella bacteria found in garden birds are sensitive to antibiotics, suggesting that the infection is unlike the bacteria found in livestock and humans.
Salmonella is increasingly resistant to antibiotics and can sometimes go undetected in animals, which increases the risk of the infection being spread to humans. The team tested the strains found in birds in the laboratory and found that antibiotics were able to kill off the bacteria.
Scientists believed that wild birds carried a variety of Salmonella strains and passed the infection on to livestock through their faeces. Scientists at Liverpool, however, have found that only two Salmonella strains are common in garden birds, neither of which is prevalent in livestock or humans.
New Ballast Treatment Could Protect Great Lakes Fish
Science Daily – www.sciencedaily.com
04 Jun 2008
A Michigan Technological University professor has developed a new water treatment that could help keep a deadly fish disease out of Lake Superior.
David Hand, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, has devised a simple way to treat ballast water in vessels ranging from pleasure craft to ore boats. His method is designed to kill the virus that causes viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), an often-fatal disease that has been attacking fish populations in the lower Great Lakes.
Hand's treatment is simple. The ballast water is disinfected with sodium hypochlorite—ordinary household bleach. Then it is treated with ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, which neutralizes the bleach before the water is released into the lake.
Probiotic Bacteria Protect Endangered Frogs From Lethal Skin Disease
Science Daily – www.sciencedaily.com
04 Jun 2008
Laboratory tests and field studies conducted by James Madison University (JMU) researchers continue to show promise that probiotic bacteria can be used to help amphibian populations, including the endangered yellow-legged frog, fend off lethal skin diseases.
The latest research, funded by the National Science Foundation, will be presented June 4 by undergraduate biology major Brianna Lam at the 108th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston. Other coauthors of the presentation are Drs. Doug Woodhams and Reid Harris from James Madison University and Vance Vredenburg from San Francisco State University (SFSU).
A year ago, JMU research showed that Pedobacter cryoconitis, a natural bacterial species on the skin of red-backed salamanders, wards off the deadly chytridiomycosis fungus. In late 2004, Australian researchers cited chytridiomycosis as one of the main factors imperiling up to one third of the world's amphibian populations.
Other Frog Health Related News
Fungus Quickly Decimates Endangered Frogs [includes link to journal article or find link below in related publications section ]
Bird Flu Back in BritainThe Poultry Site – www.thepoultrysite
04 Jun 2008
Location: Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK - Map It
The Chief Veterinary Officer, Nigel Gibbens, has today confirmed Avian Influenza in chickens on premises near Banbury in Oxfordshire after preliminary tests were positive for the H7 strain. All birds on the premises will be slaughtered as a precautionary measure.
Laboratory testing continues and results which will allow confirmation of whether the strain is high or low pathogenicity will follow. A detailed epidemiological investigation to better understand the origin and development of the disease is underway.
Other Avian Influenza Related News
OTHER WILDLIFE RELATED HEALTH NEWS
Photo courtesy of The Independent
Warmer seas blamed for rapid decline of Scottish puffin colony
- West Nile watch under way in North Dakota
- Strafford, Rockingham counties identified as Triple E, West Nile zones – Map It (Strafford)/ Map It (Rockingham)
- Save our coral reefs and beaches [editorial]
- Suit Opposes Elk Feeding in Wyoming
- Fruit-eating bats ingest dirt to counter toxic plant compounds [interesting tidbit – includes link to journal article]
- Ecosystem health is the goal of Envirovet: Program has been training veterinarians in one health for more than a decade
- Aquarium Fish Poised to Invade Lakes
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Lead Poisoning: Using Transdisciplinary Approaches to Solve an Ancient Problem
EcoHealth. 2008; [Epub ahead of print][online abstract only]
MA Pokras and MR Kneeland
The Evolutionary Genetics and Emergence of Avian Influenza Viruses in Wild Birds
PLos Pathogens. 2008; 4(5): e1000076 [free full-text available]
VG Dugan et al.
Decline and extirpation of an endangered Panamanian stream frog population (Craugastor punctariolus) due to an outbreak of chytridiomycosis.
Biological Conservation. 2008; In Press [online abstract only]
MJ Ryan et al.
1 comment:
The account of the finding of human viral agents in chimps is important, but not by any means the only such finding. AIDS and Ebola are known to have crossed the species barrier (if there is one) on lots of occasions. The work of scientists in Uganda, particularly at the Kibale Forest Research Centre, has shown a lot of links between human and ape pathogens. Check out names like JB Nizeyi, Innocent Rwego, Tom Gillespie and Bill Karesh, on Google and you will get plenty of hits. I think that there is increasing evidence that such pathogens are not "human" or "ape" or "monkey" but simply primate pathogens. Cryptosporidia, Salmonella, E. coli, all have turned up and are likely to do so with increasing frequency as contact (both direct and indirect) between species occurs ever more often.
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