Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Red squirrels found with resistance to squirrel-pox virus
The Telegraph - www.telegraph.co.uk
15 Oct 2008
P Eccleston
Area: United Kingdom

Survivors of the deadly plague threatening to wipe out the native Red squirrel have been found by scientists. The discovery brings new hope that the endangered reds may be building resistance to the killer virus carried by the rival Grey squirrel. And it should point the way to the eventual development of a vaccine to the squirrel-pox virus. The bodies of eight Red squirrels recovered during a surveillance programme scheme were found to contain antibodies which showed they had come into contact with the disease but had fought it off.

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Cancer of the Devil [Opinion]

New York Times - judson.blogs.nytimes.com
14 Oct 2008
O Judson
Image courtesy of Ian Waldie/Getty Images
Area: Tasmania, Australia

Last week, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released its latest report on the state of the world’s species. It makes for gloomy reading. Although there have been a few triumphs — species increasing their numbers thanks to conservation efforts — the general picture is one of decline. A quarter of all mammal species are now endangered, mostly because their habitat is disappearing. But of all the mammals now on the endangered list, from the fishing cat to the Caspian seal, the most startling is the Tasmanian devil.

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First case of West Nile Virus in San Luis Obispo County this year
KSBY 6 News - www.ksby.com
15 Oct 2008
C Seiler
Area: San Luis Obispo County, California, USA - Map It

The first West Nile case of the year is confirmed for San Luis Obispo County. The county Department of Public Health Services said a House Finch was discovered somewhere in the city of San Luis Obispo last month. The bird tested positive for the mosquito-borne virus after it was sent in for lab tests last month. "It just tells us that the west nile is still here. It's not going away and that the birds are still the vectors and they are still carrying the west nile virus," said Laurie Salo, a spokesperson for the San Luis Obispo County Health Agency.

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Coastal Dead Zones May Benefit Some Species, Scientist Finds
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: Brown University)
16 Oct 2008
Image courtesy of Brown University
Area: United States

Coastal dead zones, an increasing concern to ecologists, the fishing industry and the public, may not be as devoid of life after all. A Brown scientist has found that dead zones do indeed support marine life, and that at least one commercially valuable clam actually benefits from oxygen-depleted waters. Andrew Altieri, a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University, studied dead zones in Narragansett Bay, one of the largest estuaries on the U.S. East Coast. In a paper published this month in the journal Ecology, he found that quahog clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) increased in number in hypoxic zones, defined as areas where dissolved oxygen in the water has been depleted.

>>>FULL ARTICLE
>>>Field Talk: Dead Zones as Safe Havens (Ecology Society of America Podcast)