Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Researchers: 7 orcas missing from Puget Sound
Yahoo News - news.yahoo.com (Source: Associated Press)
25 Oct 2008
P Le
Image courtesy of the Center for Whale Research
Area: Puget Sound, Kitsap, Washington, USA - Map It

Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and presumed dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound's orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who carefully track the endangered animals. "This is a disaster," Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist at the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island, said Friday. "The population drop is worse than the stock market." While the official census won't be completed until December, the total number of live "southern resident" orcas now stands at 83. Among those missing since last year's count are the nearly century-old leader of one of the three southern resident pods, and two young females who recently bore calves.

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Genetics Provide Evidence for the Movement of Avian Influenza Viruses from Asia to North America via Migratory Birds
USGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
27 Oct 2008
Area: United States

Wild migratory birds may be more important carriers of avian influenza viruses from continent to continent than previously thought, according to new scientific research that has important implications for highly pathogenic avian influenza virus surveillance in North America. As part of a multi-pronged research effort to understand the role of migratory birds in the transfer of avian influenza viruses between Asia and North America, scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska and the University of Tokyo, have found genetic evidence for the movement of Asian forms of avian influenza to Alaska by northern pintail ducks.

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Cited Journal Article
>>>Genetic evidence of intercontinental movement of avian influenza in a migratory bird: the northern pintail (Anas acuta). Molecular Ecology. 2008 Oct 24; 17(21): 4754-4762.

CO2 curbs may be too late for reefs, study warns
The Guardian - www.guardian.co.uk
27 Oct 2008
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Image courtesy of Sterling Zumbrunn/CI

A new global deal on climate change will come too late to save most of the world's coral reefs, according to a US study that suggests major ecological damage to the oceans is now inevitable. Emissions of carbon dioxide are making seawater so acidic that reefs including the Great Barrier Reef off Australia could begin to break up within a few decades, research by the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California suggests. Even ambitious targets to stabilise greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, as championed by Britain and Europe to stave off dangerous climate change, still place more than 90% of coral reefs in jeopardy.

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Related News
>>>US pledges 40 million dollars to save Coral Triangle

More bighorns killed in E. Wash. collisions
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - seattlepi.nwsource.com (Source: Associated Press)
24 Oct 2008
Area: Chelan County, Washington, USA - Map It

Two more rare bighorn sheep have died in vehicle collisions this week on U.S. Highway 97A north of Wenatchee. That brings to seven the number of sheep that have died in vehicle collisions in the area since July, including at least four since Oct. 16. State wildlife officials tell The Wenatchee World it's the deadliest spate of vehicle strikes ever to befall the Swakane herd of bighorn sheep, a population that has struggled to maintain its numbers. The latest estimates by the state put the herd's population at about 80. About 60 of the animals have been residing recently on a grassy patch just off the highway about halfway between Wenatchee and Entiat.

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Important Wildlife Work Underway at Iberdrola Wind Farm on Former Coal Mine
Renewable Energy World - www.renewableenergyworld.com (Source: American Wind Energy Association)
22 Oct 2008
C Levesque
Image courtesy of PPM Energy
Area: Livingston County, Pennsylvania, United States

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell (D) this week helped open Iberdrola Renewables' Casselman Wind Power Project, a 34.5-MW facility with important environmental implications and symbolism alike. In a groundbreaking effort to study the interaction between bats and wind turbines, Iberdrola has partnered with an independent conservation group, Bat Conservation International (BCI), for wildlife data collection at the facility, which is located in southwestern Pennsylvania. BCI's work is being conducted through the Bats and Wind Energy Cooperative (BWEC), a coalition that includes AWEA, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and BCI.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of Bela Szandelszky