Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Researchers tackle fatal brain disease
Wyoming Public Radio - uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/wpr
21 Nov 2008

Peter O'Dowd reports on the efforts in Wyoming and around the country to manage Chronic Wasting Disease (cwd).

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Other CWD Related News

Cost approaching $1M for one deer with CWD

Other Prion Related News

Photo courtesy of Science Daily

>>> Prion Infectivity Found In White And Brown Fat Tissues Of Mice

>>> New Mouse Model Of Prion Disease: Mutant Proteins Result In Infectious Prion Disease In Mice

>>> Fat cells also linked to prion infection

Strong evidence found linking mycobacteriosis to striped bass mortality
Bay Journal - www.bayjournal.com
Dec 2008
K Blankenship

A new study provides the strongest indication to date that mycobacteriosis, a disease that has plagued Chesapeake Bay striped bass for more than a decade, likely results in the death of substantial numbers of rockfish.

Mycobacteriosis is a chronic wasting disease, distantly related to tuberculosis in humans, which was first discovered in the Bay's striped bass population in 1997. It can cause extensive tumor-like growths inside the fish, and is sometimes associated with ugly external lesions on the outside. . . .

The new study, published in the October issue of Ecological Applications, used a computer model that drew on an extensive set of monitoring data to construct a strong circumstantial case that the disease leads to death, especially in older female fish. . . . "This is really one of the first attempts to figure out what a chronic disease is doing in a wild, migratory finfish population."

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CITED JOURNAL ARTICLE

MYCOBACTERIOSIS-ASSOCIATED MORTALITY IN WILD STRIPED BASS (MORONE SAXATILIS) FROM CHESAPEAKE BAY, USA. Ecological Applications. 2008. 18(7): 1718-1727

Honeybee CSI: Why dead bodies can’t be found: Virus could explain one symptom of colony collapse
Science News - www.sciencenews.org
20 Dec 2008 (Vol 174; Issue 13)
S Milius
Photo courtesy of Science News

There’s bad news for diehards still arguing that honeybees are getting abducted by aliens.

Beehives across North America continue to lose their workers for reasons not yet understood, a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. But new tests suggest how a virus nicknamed IAPV might be to blame for one of the more puzzling aspects of the disorder—the impression that substantial numbers of bees vanish into thin air.

In tests on hives in a greenhouse, bees infected with IAPV (short for Israeli acute paralytic virus) rarely died in the hive. Sick bees expired throughout the greenhouse, including near the greenhouse wall, Diana Cox-Foster of Pennsylvania State University in University Park reported November 18 in Reno, Nev., at the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America.

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Disease ravaging wolf pups
Timberjay Newspapers - www.timberjay.com
07 Dec 2008
M Helmberger
Location: Ely, Minnesota, USA - Map It

Minnesota’s wolf population has stopped growing and a new study by Dr. David Mech suggests a highly contagious canine disease may be playing a major role in that trend. The study, which appeared late last month in the Journal of Animal Diseases, reports that as many as 70 percent of wolf pups in the study population, located near Ely, are now dying of canine parvovirus, or CPV, a disease first detected in wild wolves in the 1970s.

According to Mech, young wolves up to about one year of age appear to be the most vulnerable to the effects of CPV. While a high percentage of adult wolves in the state are carriers of the disease, they appear to be able to withstand its effects.

Across the state, Mech estimates that CPV is killing between 40 and 60 percent of wolf pups and appears to be sharply limiting growth of Minnesota’s wolf population. Mech estimates that the disease is limiting the state’s wolf population growth to just four percent, or far lower than that experienced in other states with wolf populations, like Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as in Yellowstone National Park.

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Wildlife Society and USA-National Phenology Network; Wildlife Phenology Program
Kansas City InfoZine - www.infozine.com
05 Dec 2008

A new Wildlife Phenology Program will enlist professional and citizen scientists across the country to monitor and record seasonal wildlife events to help managers understand and respond to climatic and other environmental changes.

The Wildlife Society (TWS) and the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) announced the program as the second phase in the USA-NPN’s monitoring efforts; the Plant Phenology Program started in 2007. The program will be housed at the National Coordinating Office of the USA-NPN, at The University of Arizona in Tucson.

Phenology is the study of the seasonal timing of plant and animal life-cycle events such as bird, fish and mammal migration; emergence from hibernation; and the leafing, blooming and fruiting of plants. Changes in the timing of these events are among the most sensitive biological responses to climate change. Over much of the world, spring events are occurring earlier. Consequently, many time-sensitive relationships, such as those between animals and their prey or plants and their pollinators are being disrupted.

“Wildlife managers are trying to quickly adapt to a changing climate, and this program is designed to help them adapt effectively,” said Michael Hutchins, executive director of TWS.

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