Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Outbreak Of Plague In South Dakota Leads To Vaccines For Black-footed Ferrets
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
22 Jul 2008
Image Courtesy of USFWS
Area: South Dakota, United States - Map It

Endangered black-footed ferrets, like children, aren't exactly lining up to be stuck with a vaccine, but in an effort to help control an extensive outbreak of plague in South Dakota, some of the ferrets are getting dosed with a vaccine given by biologists.

This is the first time the vaccine has been used during a major plague epizootic—an animal version of a human epidemic. Sylvatic plague is an infectious bacterial disease usually transmitted from animal to animal by fleas. This exotic disease is usually deadly for black-footed ferrets and their primary prey, prairie dogs. Black-footed ferrets are one of the rarest mammals in North America.

In mid-May, the Centers for Disease Control confirmed sylvatic plague in black-tailed prairie dog colonies in the Conata Basin area of Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in southwestern South Dakota. As of late June, about 9,000 acres of prairie dog habitat — including colonies occupied by vulnerable black-footed ferrets — have been infected by the disease, according to U.S. Forest Service mapping. Black-tailed prairie dogs are also being reconsidered for listing under the Endangered Species Act.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Wild bird die-off probably not caused by humans
Star Tribune - www.startribune.com
23 Jul 2008
P Walsh
Area: Minnesota, United States - Map It

Human activity is probably not to blame for the deaths of hundreds of double-crested cormorants, a few dozen American white pelicans and a few other water birds that were discovered at two lakes in Minnesota, a leading state expert said Tuesday. The discoveries were made last week by state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff members who were banding pelicans at Minnesota Lake in Faribault County, in southern Minnesota, and Pigeon Lake in Meeker County, west of the Twin Cities.

Initial tests for avian influenza were negative, the DNR said. The specific cause of the bird illness remains undetermined. "I would doubt that it's human-related" activity that is behind the die-off, said Michelle Carstensen, DNR Wildlife Health Program coordinator, suggesting that it's "probably a pathogen [a disease-causing organism] ... very specific to that species" that is at work. As for which pathogen is to blame, Carstensen said, "It's a big list of possibilities." Regarding the total number of birds lost, Carstensen described it as "not a big loss population-wise."

The stricken birds were found on islands where pelicans, herons, egrets and gulls traditionally nest. As of Friday, 687 cormorants and 37 pelicans, three ring-billed gulls and one great blue heron had been found dead.

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Bird disease affecting doves, pigeons, in Nevada
KTVN Channel 2 - www.ktvn.com (Source: Associated Press)
22 Jul 2008
Area: Reno, Nevada, United States - Map It

Nevada wildlife and health officials say doves and pigeons in the Reno-Sparks area are being affected by disease. Officials have received reports of at least 20 dead and dying doves and pigeons in the past week. Experts say an investigation shows the birds are infected with an avian parasite (called trichomoniasis). It does not pose a threat to humans, but can infect other birds such as raptors, caged bird and domestic turkeys and chickens.

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Bovine tuberculosis in wildlife threatens endangered lynx and cattle health
Eureka Alert - www.eurekalert.org
22 Jul 2008
Photo Courtesy of Christian Gortázar
Area: Doñana National Park, Spain - Map It

In an epidemiological survey of Spain's Doñana National Park, the findings of which are published on July 23 in the journal PLoS ONE, Christian Gortázar and colleagues studied the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) infection among populations of wild boar, red deer and fallow deer in the national park, which is located in southern Spain. The researchers suggest that the results can be used to investigate bovine TB transmission dynamics between and within each species and to extrapolate the implications for spill-over to domestic cattle and wildlife management policies.

The Doñana National Park is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve where commercial hunting and artificial wildlife feeding do not take place and traditional cattle husbandry still exists. Deaths of the highly endangered Iberian lynx due to bovine TB have been recorded in this area, and annual cattle bovine TB reactor rates have increased despite compulsory testing and culling.

In this study, Christian Gortázar and colleagues analysed the European wild boar, the red deer and the fallow deer for bovine TB. The infection was confirmed in 52% of wild boar, 27% of red deer and 18% of fallow deer. The prevalence recorded in this study is among the highest reported in wildlife. Remarkably, this high prevalence occurs in the absence of artificial wildlife feeding, which suggests that a feeding ban alone would have a limited effect on the prevalence of bovine TB among the wildlife.

The results highlight the need to consider the potential effects on wildlife when controlling bovine TB in cattle and strongly suggest that bovine TB may have big effects on wild animal welfare and conservation.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
Bovine Tuberculosis in Doñana Biosphere Reserve: The Role of Wild Ungulates as Disease Reservoirs in the Last Iberian Lynx Strongholds.

PLoS ONE. 2008; 3(7): e2776

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Carmarthenshire, Wales - Map It

Gray Whales Offered as Sentinels of Climate Change
Environmental Protection - www.eponline.com
23 Jul 2008

Species dependent on sea ice, such as the gray whale, provide the clearest examples of sensitivity to climate change, according to an article in the June 2008 Journal of Mammalogy, published by the American Society of Mammalogists. The behavioral ecology of gray whales in the eastern North Pacific and Arctic oceans could help illustrate the importance of ecological processes acting over large spatial scales. "Much more can be achieved by selecting specific marine mammal species as vectors to investigations of full ecosystems," writes Sue E. Moore in her article "Marine Mammals as Ecosystem Sentinels."

Moore outlines six correlations betweens changes in the distribution and behavior of gray whales and changes in their environment, including the timing of migration and their response to El Niño or La Niña weather patterns. This suggests gray whales are effective sentinels of change in ecosystems, Moore says. The use of gray whales as sentinels goes beyond tracking distribution changes, Moore says. Tests on the whales' blubber can detect pollutant levels and changes in their diet. "The overall health of marine mammals ultimately reflects the health of the ecosystems upon which they depend," she writes.

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Cited Journal Article
MARINE MAMMALS AS ECOSYSTEM SENTINELS
Journal of Mammalogy, 89(3):534–540, 2008

Commercial Bees Spreading Disease To Wild Pollinating Bees
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
23 Jul 2008
Photo Courtesy of iStockphoto/Janis Litavnieks

Bees provide crucial pollination service to numerous crops and up to a third of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by insects. However, pollinating bees are suffering widespread declines in North America and scientists warn that this could have serious implications for agriculture and food supply. While the cause of these declines has largely been a mystery, new research reveals an alarming spread of disease from commercial bees to wild pollinators.

Michael Otterstatter and James Thomson of the University of Toronto have presented compelling evidence in a new study that commercially produced bumble bees used in greenhouses are infecting their wild cousins, and that this is likely contributing to reductions in the natural pollinating bee population.

Otterstatter and Thomson investigated the occurrence of disease in wild bumble bees in southern Ontario, Canada, particularly in areas close to industrial greenhouse operations. In addition, the authors used a combination of laboratory experiments and mathematical modelling to simulate the spread, or 'spillover', of disease from commercial bees to wild populations, and to predict the extent and severity of such spread in the wild.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
Does Pathogen Spillover from Commercially Reared Bumble Bees Threaten Wild Pollinators?
PLoS One. 2008; 3(7): e2771

Life’s a bleach: Taxonomic splits needed to understand how lumps of coral get bleached
Conservation Magazine - journalwatch.conservationmagazine.org
22 Jul 2008

Susceptibility to bleaching is down to the fine-scale genetic type of a coral’s dinoflagellate symbionts, according to a study published this week in PNAS. A group of University of Queensland marine biologists, led by Eugenia Sampayo, followed the fate of individually tagged corals Stylophora pistillata on the Great Barrier Reef, monitoring the conditions under which they suffered bleaching and subsequently recovered. The broad symbiont “clades” — genetic subdivisions – weren’t sufficient to explain the observed pattern of bleaching

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
Bleaching susceptibility and mortality of corals is determined by fine-scale differences in symbiont type.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 2008; Epub ahead of print.

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