TOP STORIES

Saving Wild Salmon, in Hopes of Saving the Orca
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
03 Nov 2008
C Dean
Area: Echo Bay, British Columbia, Canada

. . . But Ms. Morton and researchers like Martin Krkosek of the University of Alberta and John Volpe of the University of Victoria predict that some local salmon runs will disappear unless the farms are altered or removed. And because salmon loom large in the diets of orcas, bears, eagles and other animals, their disappearance would unravel the region’s web of life. “A lot of wild salmon populations have been on the edge for quite a long time,” threatened by logging, dams and “plain old overfishing,” said Ellen Pikitch, a fisheries biologist who heads the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University in New York. “The sea lice problem could be the nail in the coffin for some of these fish.”

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Oil Still in the Bay
KQED Radio - www.kqed.org
03 Nov 2008
Host: A Kissack
Area: San Francisco, California, USA

It's been a year since 53,000 gallons of oil from the Cosco Busan spilled into San Francisco Bay. More than half of that heavy bunker fuel is still around. Now, one challenge is to put the long-term effects of the spill into dollar terms, and then seek a settlement with the ship's owners. Officials say this work may set the national standard for handling man-made crises.

>>>AUDIO

The Miss. gopher frog avoids extinction, barely
MSNBC - www.msnbc.msn.com (Source: Associated Press)
02 Nov 2008
Image courtesy of Glen Johnson/AP
Area: United States

. . . Mississippi gopher frogs breed only in ponds so shallow they dry up in summer. Hot, dry springs have stranded tadpoles every year since 1998, when 2,488 froglets hopped out of Glen's Pond in coastal Harrison County, Miss. The pond held water longer this year. And 181 tadpoles survived a deadly parasite, made it through metamorphosis and headed into the surrounding DeSoto National Forest. Biologists saved seven generations. They wash some eggs in well water, apparently removing the parasite, hatch them in a lab and put the tadpoles in screen-covered outdoor tanks. Scientists believe fewer than 100 mature adults live in the wild. Five zoos — in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis, Miami and Omaha, Neb. — have 75 more frogs.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Biologists hunt for bird flu in Florida ducks
Florida Today - www.floridatoday.com
03 Nov 2008
Area: Florida, USA

State and federal biologists plan to collect samples from ducks hunters shoot to test for avian influenza virus. Biologists will sample during the migratory game bird hunting season at several duck-hunting hot spots throughout Florida. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services will conduct the tests. The virus, H5N, has never been found in Florida.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

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Deadly New Virus Thought to Be Contained
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
03 Nov 2008
DG McNeil Jr.

A new virus that causes fatal hemorrhagic fevers has been discovered in southern Africa. It killed four people in South Africa and sickened a fifth, but health authorities believe the outbreak has been contained. The virus is a member of the arenavirus family, which also includes the causes of Lassa fever in West Africa and several South American fevers. While new viruses are often found in animals — a new blue-tongue virus was found in Swiss goats last month, for example — it is relatively rare to discover one fatal to humans, like the SARS coronavirus in 2002 or the sin nombre hantavirus in 1993. How the first victim was infected is unknown, but arenaviruses are common in rodents; their dried urine, inhaled while sweeping, can transmit infection.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of Praveen Kumar/BBC - Guardian: Natural World: 25th birthday picture special

• Vets back Yellowstone-area livestock disease plan (Brucellosis)
  
• Ancient 'Water Monster' Facing Extinction
• More good news for abalone industry (Ganglioneuritis Virus, Tasmania)
  
• Pick up a penguin orphan
• New independent body to look into eradicating bovine TB (United Kingdom)
  
• Editorial: Find compromise on fish virus testing (VHS, Great Lakes)
  

WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine
Volume 39, Issue 3 (September 2008)

Experimental Infection of Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) with West Nile Virus
Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 79(3), 2008, pp. 447-451 [online abstract only]
A Gómez et al.

Handbook for Zoonotic Diseases of Companion Animals [book]
Center for Food Security and Public Health. 2008 [online table of contents only]
G Dvorak
(Thanks to Iowa State University and Glenda Dvorak for sharing this resource)

New and evolving infections of the 21st century [book]
Springer. 2008
IW Fong and K Alibek (Eds.)
(Thanks to the National Wildlife Health Center for sharing this resource)


Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook [book]
CRC. 2007 [preview of book only]
RM Salerno and J Gaudioso
(Thanks to the National Wildlife Health Center for sharing this resource)