Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Loons, gulls found dead on Presque Isle
Erie Times-News - www.goerie.com
06 Nov 2008
R Frederick
Area: Erie, Erie County, Pennsylvania, USA - Map It

Area biologists are seeing an increase in bird deaths from avian botulism, a paralytic disease that kills about 10,000 Great Lakes shorebirds every year. The field staff at Presque Isle State Park collected at least nine dead birds during the fall beach walk on Wednesday. Most were immature loons. Biologists found 33 loons and three dead seagulls on the peninsula on Friday. An intern found 14 more on Saturday. Volunteers found about 30 birds and a raccoon on Freeport Beach in North East on Sunday morning.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Winnipeg scientists offer explanation for sporadic nature of Ebola outbreaks
The Canadian Press - www.thecanadianpress.com
05 Nov 2008
Area: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Why does the Ebola virus only sporadically break out of its hiding place in the jungles of central Africa to infect humans or great apes? New research from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg may help scientists answer that question. The work suggests one or more species of animals that serve as reservoirs for the virus may be able to safely harbour it at low levels, like a chronic infection. But exposing those animals to some external stressor - a chemical, climatic change, maybe even pregnancy - can trigger a rise in virus levels. The animal becomes sick and more likely to shed viruses or be preyed upon by great apes or humans, leading to transmission of the deadly virus.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Stimulation of Ebola virus production from persistent infection through activation
of the Ras/MAPK pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Nov 3. [Epub ahead of print]

Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
06 Nov 2008
Area: United States

USGS and a network of partners across the country work on documenting wildlife mortality events in order to provide timely and accurate information on locations, species and causes of death. This information was updated on Nov 04, 2008 on the USGS National Wildlife Health Center web page, New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide. Quarterly Mortality Reports are also available from this page. These reports go back to 1995.

>>> Updated Wildlife Mortality Event Table

Study links lead in blood to wild game consumption
Associated Press - www.ap.org
05 Nov 2008
Area: United States

. . . The study, conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state health department, is the first to connect lead traces in game with higher lead levels in the blood of game eaters, said Dr. Stephen Pickard, a CDC epidemiolgist who works with the state health department. A separate study by Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources previously found that fragments from lead bullets spread as far as 18 inches away from the wound. "Nobody was in trouble from the lead levels," Pickard said. However, "the effect was small but large enough to be a concern," he said. Pickard said the study found "the more recent the consumption of wild game harvested with lead bullets, the higher the level of lead in the blood."

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Protein 'Tubules' Free Avian Flu Virus From Immune Recognition
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: Baylor College of Medicine)
05 Nov 2008
Area: United States

A protein found in the virulent avian influenza virus strain called H5N1 forms tiny tubules in which it "hides" the pieces of double-stranded RNA formed during viral infection, which otherwise would prompt an antiviral immune response from infected cells, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in an online report in the journal Nature. Two domains or portions of the protein NS1 combine to form tiny tubules where double-stranded RNA is hidden from the immune system, said Dr. B. V. Venkataram Prasad, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, molecular virology and microbiology at BCM and his student, Dr. Zachary A. Bornholdt (now of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California).

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of National Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com