Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Shipwrecks On Coral Reefs Harbor Unwanted Species
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Public Library of Science)
19 Aug 2008
Image courtesy of Thierry M. Work (USGS)

Shipwrecks on coral reefs may increase invasion of unwanted species, according to a recent U.S. Geological Survey study. These unwanted species can completely overtake the reef and eliminate all the native coral, dramatically decreasing the diversity of marine organisms on the reef. This study documents for the first time that a rapid change in the dominant biota on a coral reef is unambiguously associated with man-made structures. The findings of the study suggest that removal of these structures sooner rather than later is key to keeping reefs healthy.

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Cited Journal Article
>>>Phase Shift from a Coral to a Corallimorph-Dominated Reef Associated with a Shipwreck on Palmyra Atoll. PLoS One, 2008; 3 (8): e2989.

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More diseases surface as bush meat eating rises
allAfrica.com (Source: The Monitor - www.monitor.co.ug)
20 Aug 2008
C Abraham
Area: Africa

As high beef and fish prices push populations to rely on home reared chicken and bush meat, the likelihood of them contracting zoonotic diseases increases in a continent not adequately prepared for bird flu, ebola and other animal-spread diseases outbreaks, writes Curtis Abraham. Last year’s outbreaks of the deadly Marburg and Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever viruses in southwestern Uganda and in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo’s province of Kasai Occidental and the sporadic outbreaks of Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) across the continent once again bring to light the threat zoonotic diseases pose to sub-Saharan Africa in particular and the world generally. According to recent analysis, more than 60 percent of the estimated 1,415 infectious diseases known to modern medicine are capable of infecting both animals and humans.

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Melanoma Not Without Benefits
Science a Go Go - www.scienceagogo.com (Source: Ohio University)
20 Aug 2008
K Melville

Though skin cancer is deadly to male swordtail fish, it also has one perk: black melanoma splotches help lure females, suggesting that the melanoma gene is conserved for its beneficial role in sexual selection. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, marks the first time scientists have found a cancer gene linked to a pigment pattern that functions to increase mating success in animals. In the study, the researchers placed a female swordtail fish in the middle of a tank with two partitions. They positioned a male with the faux pattern from which melanomas form on one side, and a male without the pattern on the other.

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Algae could explain dead whales, seals in St. Lawrence
National Post - www.nationalpost.com
19 Aug 2008
B Bundale
Area: St Lawrence Seaway, Quebec, Canada - Map It

As blue-green algae continues to plague Quebec's lakes, a 500 square kilometre swath of red algae in the St. Lawrence Seaway appears to be causing the deaths of marine animals, including the threatened beluga whale. Although red algae occur naturally in the St. Lawrence, several days of heavy rainfall caused the red blooms to proliferate around the mouth of the Saguenay River earlier this month. The "red tide" moved with the current east from Riviere-du-Loup and Tadoussac toward Rimouski, leaving in its wake the carcasses of seven harbour porpoises, nine beluga whales, 35 seals and thousands of seabirds like gulls, loons, ducks and cormorants, said Pierre Beland, a doctor and spokesman for the St. Lawrence National Institute of Ecotoxicology.

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of National Geographic News