Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Local marine-life contaminant levels 'terrifyingly high'
Daily Breeze - www.dailybreeze.com
22 Dec 2008
M Pamer
Photo credit: Brad Graverson
Area: United States

More than 35 years after local companies stopped dumping now-banned toxic chemicals off the Palos Verdes Peninsula, a new study shows that seals and sea lions feeding in the area have contamination levels that are "terrifyingly high," according to one environmental advocate. The California State University, Long Beach, study found that California sea lions, Pacific harbor seals and northern elephant seals have much higher concentrations than previous data has shown for the pesticide DDT and a group of industrial compounds called PCBs. The chemicals were dumped off San Pedro's White Point from 1947 to 1971 by Harbor Gateway-based Montrose Chemical Corp. and other companies.

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Elk Meat Sold In Boulder Could Have Chronic Wasting Disease
KRDO News 13 - www.krdo.com
28 Dec 2008
Area: Boulder, Colorado, USA

Elk meat sold in Boulder could be infected with chronic wasting disease. As a result, the Boulder County Health Department and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are issuing an advisory to customers who purchased elk meat at a farmers' market at the Boulder County Fairgrounds on Dec. 13. Testing has shown that one of the elk sold that day was infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD). Although there is no known human health risk associated with exposure to CWD, as a precaution, the state health department has recommended against consuming meat from animals known to be infected with CWD.

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Defensive Protein Killed Ancient Primate Retroviruses, Research Suggests
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: Rockefeller University)
27 Dec 2008

Retroviruses are the worst sort of guest. Over eons, these molecular parasites have insinuated themselves into their hosts’ DNA and caused a ruckus. The poor hosts can’t even be rid of the intruders by killing them, because they stubbornly remain after death. As much as eight percent of the human genome is littered with a “fossil record” of extinct retroviruses that we have inherited from our ancestors — human and otherwise — who were the original victims of the viruses.

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Cited Journal Article
>>>Evidence for Restriction of Ancient Primate Gammaretroviruses by APOBEC3 but Not TRIM5α Proteins. PLoS Pathogens 4(10). [Epub ahead of print].

Hot Southern Summer Threatens Coral With Massive Bleaching Event
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: World Wildlife Fund)
28 Dec 2008

A widespread and severe coral bleaching episode is predicted to cause immense damage to some of the world’s most important marine environments over the next few months. A report from the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts severe bleaching for parts of the Coral Sea, which lies adjacent to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle, a 5.4 million square kilometre expanse of ocean in the Indo-Pacific which is considered the centre of the world’s marine life. “This forecast bleaching episode will be caused by increased water temperatures and is the kind of event we can expect on a regular basis if average global temperatures rise above 2 degrees,” said Richard Leck, Climate Change Strategy Leader for WWF’s Coral Triangle Program.

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Related News
>>>Four Years After Tsunami, Coral Reefs Recovering
>>>Death of corals is oceanographer's murder mystery

Plastic haul found in dead wildlife
Herald Sun - www.news.com.au/heraldsun (Source: Daily Telegraph)
30 Dec 2008
Area: Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand - Map It

An albatross chick has been found dead with 272 pieces of plastic in its gut. The haul included a cigarette lighter, nine bottle tops, 10 lids, a lollipop stick, twine, fishing line, a fork and a toy wheel. It was found at Dunedin, New Zealand, but Australian wildlife carers said the 250g load was no surprise. They routinely find animals such as marine turtles and seabirds dying from plastic-clogged stomachs.

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