Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Africa: Continent's Rare Species of Flora and Fauna Face Extinction as Poaching Intensifies
All Africa - www.allafrica.com
13 Oct 2008

Most rare and precious African fauna and flora species are on the verge of extinction, today more than in the past years following increased illegal trade in the past decade as global demand for these increases on daily basis. Game poaching has been singled out as the greatest threat that could lead to the extinction of wild animals like elephants, leopards, rhinoceros, gorillas and buffaloes among other African animals, making these species more endangered like never before.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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High water in the Everglades threatens wildlife
The Miami Herald - www.miamiherald.com
15 Oct 2008
C Morgan

With deer belly-deep in the marsh, state wildlife managers fear animals will die if water levels in the Everglades don't recede... ''If we don't start doing something, we're going to end up with a total massacre,'' said wildlife Commissioner Ron Bergeron, who took U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, on an airboat trip Tuesday into the 700,000-acre conservation area west of suburban Miami-Dade and Broward counties, a marsh hammered by high waters over the decades. Similar conditions decimated the Glades' white-tailed deer in 1982 and 1995, knocking the herd from thousands to hundreds, and killed countless smaller animals that rely on high, dry tree islands for food and shelter.

>>>FULL ARTICLE (INCLUDES VIDEO AND PHOTOS)

UNDIAGNOSED FATALITIES - SOUTH AFRICA EX ZAMBIA (08): ARENAVIRUS IDENTIFIED
ProMed-Mail - www.promedmail.org
13 Oct 2008
Area: Zambia - Map It

In this update:

[1] South Africa - National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NCID): Outbreak of an acute disease, ex Zambia
[2] WHO: New virus from family _Arenaviridae_ in South Africa and Zambia - Update
[3] South Africa Government Communication and Information System: Unknown illness identified as Arenavirus
[4} Newswire: Virus identified - nurse ill

>>>FULL ARENA VIRUS OUTBREAK UPDATE

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Two deer test positive for chronic wasting disease
Casper Star-Tribune - www.casperstartribune.net
14 Oct 2008
C Merrill
Area: Buffalo, Wyoming - Map It

Two hunter-harvested buck mule deer in northeast Wyoming have tested positive for chronic wasting disease, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Chronic wasting disease is a brain disease that, once active, is thought to be 100 percent fatal in deer, elk and moose. The two deer were both shot on Oct. 3, one northeast of Buffalo near Lake DeSmet in deer hunt area 26, and the other 7 1/2 miles east of Kaycee, in deer hunt area 29. Personnel at the Game and Fish Department laboratory discovered the infected animals in the process of the department"s annual CWD survey. "This is the first time we have found CWD in these two hunt areas," said Warren Mischke, spokesman for the Game and Fish Department's Sheridan Region.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo courtesy of AFP