TOP STORIES

Fungus killing off frogs
ScienceAlert - www.sciencealert.com.au (Source: University of Tasmania)
29 Oct 2008
Image courtesy of iStockphoto

The world’s frogs are in population decline because a fungal disease is causing extinctions, according to a paper published in the prestigious US publication, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). University of Tasmania scientist, Professor Hamish McCallum, is a co-author of the paper, along with academics from the University of South Florida and Penn State University. Scientists have known that the cause of many frog extinctions was the fungal disease chytridiomycosis but some suggested that global warming has increased disease impacts. Others have suggested that the disease has spread following recent introductions.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News

>>>Climate link to amphibian decline [Yellowstone National Park]

October Science Picks — Leads, Feeds and Story Seeds
USGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov
28 Oct 2008

Wildlife Related Highlights

• Discovery of a New Pacific Iguana Unravels Mystery
• Sea Otter Decline Means Change of Menu for Aleutian Bald Eagles
• Deep-Sea Corals in the Gulf of Mexico
• Freaky Frog Fungus

>>>FULL ARTICLE

VIMS study shows bacterial disease can kill striped bass
College of William and Mary - www.wm.edu
27 Oct 2008
D Malmquist
Image courtesy of VIMS
Area: Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA

A study led by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, is the first to demonstrate that striped bass in Chesapeake Bay are succumbing to mycobacteriosis. This chronic bacterial disease, first detected in Bay stripers in 1997, now infects more than half of all striped bass in Bay waters. The study, which appears in the October 2008 issue of Ecological Applications, was authored by VIMS researchers David Gauthier, Rob Latour, Chris Bonzek, Jim Gartland, and Wolfgang Vogelbein, as well as Erin Burge of Coastal Carolina University and Dennis Heisey of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Center.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Mycobacteriosis-associated mortality in wild striped bass (Morone saxatilis) from Chesapeake Bay, U.S.A. Ecol Appl. 2008 Oct; 18(7): 1718-27.

National HPAI Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) Update
NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node
19 Sep 2008
Area: United States

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) is an avian influenza data sharing repository. NBII and a network of partners across the nation have created HEDDS to hold data from different surveillance strategies and to provide a comprehensive view of national sampling efforts.

Recent HEDDS Activity

• Oct 24, 2008: The LPAI H5N1 results table has been updated with information on samples collected on Sep 29, 2008 from a Mallard in Saginaw county, MI.
• Oct 24, 2008: 319 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2008. Total is now 44,822.
• Oct 20, 2008: 3,463 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2008. Total is now 44,503.

>>>For more about HEDDS

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of The Telegraph - www.telegraph.co.uk

• Pictured: African elephants afraid of roads because they mean danger
• Mass Audubon and The Nature Conservancy launch first oyster reef restoration effort in Massachusetts
• Forum held on chronic wasting disease
• Sea burials help rebuild reefs [Interesting]
• New fishing trend: Virus sends poachers inland [Abalone Virus, Australia]
• Condor Return
• Rebels Seize Congo Gorilla Park; Hopes Dim for Apes
• EU funding threat over bovine TB
• Hantavirus update 2008 - Americas (21): Panama (COC) - Archive Number 20081027.3389
• Single case of inhalation anthrax [London, England]

WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Emerging Infectious Diseases - November 2008
Volume 14, Number 11

Excretion of BSE and scrapie prions in stools from murine models
Vet Microbiol. 2008 Sep 18;131(1-2):205-11. Epub 2008 Mar 4. [online abstract only]
C Maluquer de Motes et al.

Emerging and reemerging diseases: a historical perspective
Immunol Rev. 2008 Oct;225(1):9-26 [online abstract only]
FM Snowden