Wildlife Disease News Digest

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‘Extinct’ frog found thriving
ScienceAlert - www.sciencealert.com.au (Source: James Cook University)
12 Sep 2008
Image courtesy of Robert Puschendorf, James Cook University
Area: North Queensland, Australia

Australian researchers have discovered a frog species not seen for the past 17 years in a remote location in far North Queensland. James Cook University’s Professor Ross Alford said it was feared that the Armoured Mist Frog (Litoria lorica) had been lost in the devastating outbreaks of amphibian chytrid fungus that started in the Wet Tropics 20 years ago. “But JCU PhD student Robert Puschendorf working with myself and the JCU Amphibian Disease Ecology Group has found a healthy population of the Armoured Mist Frog well outside the areas it used to inhabit,” Professor Alford said. “The population at a remote location on the Carbine Tableland is healthy and is coexisting with a healthy population of the Waterfall Frog, Litoria nannotis, another species that declined due to the fungus.

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Funding helps continue TB programmes
Stuff.co.nz - www.stuff.co.nz
12 Sep 2008
K Graham
Area: New Zealand

Recently awarded Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FRST) funding will see AgResearch continue a programme to research the development of a bovine tuberculosis vaccine for possums.AgResearch section manager for animal health, Dr Wayne Hein, said the main goal of the research was to produce an improved tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that could eradicate bovine TB from wildlife. He said the deployment of such a vaccine could replace the use of 1080 poison to some extent and at the same time increase the chances of complete eradication of the disease from wildlife. Completion of the vaccine programme will require a further six years of research and the recent FRST funding has approved a further two years for the programme to continue.

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Abalone tests continue
ABC News - www.abc.net.au
12 Sep 2008
Area: Victoria, Australia

Authorities are warning it could be weeks before it's known whether a deadly virus has spread to Tasmania's wild fisheries. But they say the lack of evidence pointing to an outbreak of Ganglio Neuritis is good news. Divers today scoured the south east coast but found no signs of the disease in wild abalone. The Head of Biosecurity Alex Schapp says the incubation period for the disease is as little as three days.

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Watch for Pigeon Lake island closing caused by Newcastle disease
Litchfield Independent Review - www.independentreview.net
11 Sep 2008
M McMillan
Area: Minnesota, USA

Don’t be too surprised if you see “closed” signs on certain islands and lake access points within five Minnesota lakes. Birds from these lakes were confirmed to have virulent Newcastle disease, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The virus, which already has killed more than 1,200 double-crested cormorants this summer in Minnesota, has been confirmed at Minnesota Lake, Pigeon Lake, Lake of the Woods, Marsh Lake and Lake Kabetogama. DNR officials still are waiting for results from Mille Lacs Lake. Counties affected or potentially affected by the closed areas include Meeker, Faribault, Mille Lacs, Cass, St. Louis (in the Voyageurs National Park area), Lake of the Woods and Lac Qui Parle.

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