Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Electronic Smog 'Is Disrupting Nature On A Massive Scale'
The Independent - www.independent.co.uk
07 Sep 2008
Image courtesy of AP
G Lean

Mobile phones, Wi-Fi systems, electric power lines and similar sources of "electrosmog" are disrupting nature on a massive scale, causing birds and bees to lose their bearings, fail to reproduce and die, a conference will be told this week. Dr Ulrich Warnke – who has been researching the effects of man-made electrical fields on wildlife for more than 30 years – will tell the conference, organised by the Radiation Research Trust at the Royal Society in London, that "an unprecedented dense mesh of artificial magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic fields" has been generated, overwhelming the "natural system of information" on which the species rely. He believes this could be responsible for the disappearance of bees in Europe and the US in what is known as colony collapse disorder, for the decline of the house sparrow, whose numbers have fallen by half in Britain over the past 30 years, and that it could also interfere with bird migration.

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Up to 300 swallows and ducks dead after oil spill in southeastern Alberta
Canada East - www.canadaeast.com (Source: Canadian Press)
09 Sep 2008
Area: Alberta, Canada - Map It

Cleanup efforts were underway Tuesday at the site of an oil leak in southeastern Alberta that killed up to 300 songbirds and waterfowl. The leak was from a well that had been suspended but not abandoned in case its owner wanted to resume production. Such wells are plugged but not formally dismantled. "(The birds) have reportedly flown into the spill and died," said David Inkstrup, regional manager for the Canadian Wildlife Service, a branch of Environment Canada, which was monitoring the cleanup. Early indications were the birds that died were mostly swallows and ducks, he said.

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Bird malaria helps plan for bird flu
ScienceAlert - www.sciencealert.com.au (Source: Deakin University)
11 Sep 2008
Image courtesy of iStockphoto
Area: Australia

A new research project is looking into how birds might bring avian influenza and other diseases into Australia. Deakin University environmental science expert Dr Rohan Clarke has been involved in a major study of migratory birds moving from South-East Asia and Papua New Guinea to northern Australia, with the aim of tracking how disease spreads. Dr Clarke has made several field trips to the Torres Strait to take samples from birds and study their migration patterns. He said this is the obvious pathway of any disease like bird flu moving into the country as Australian islands are situated just 3 km from the Papua New Guinea coastline. “Clearly this border is the major bio-security threat for Australia and if anything is likely to come into country, this is the path the disease is likely to come through,’’ he said.

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Big Sur condor dies of lead poisoning
Mercury News - www.mercurynews.com (Source: Associated Press)
10 Sep 2008
Area: Big Sur, California, USA - Map It

A California condor captured in Big Sur has died of complications from lead poisoning. The 4-year-old female condor died Sunday at the Los Angeles Zoo, where it was taken after capture by Ventana Wildlife Society biologists.

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Bird tests positive for West Nile virus in St. Clair County; first of this year
Belleville News-Democrat - www.bnd.com
09 Sep 2008
Area: St. Clare County, Illinois, USA - Map It

A bird has tested positive for West Nile Virus in St. Clair County, the first case this year. The bird test positive on Aug. 18, and earlier this year three samples of mosquitoes in St. Clair County tested positive for the virus. No human cases of illness from the West Nile Virus have ever been reported in St. Clair County. More than 15 bird pools and 366 mosquito samples in 18 counties of Illinois tested positive for the West Nile Virus.

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of the Worthington Herald