Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Two-headed fish larvae blamed on farm chemicals in Noosa River
The Courier-Mail - www.news.com.au
13 Jan 2009
B Williams and S Elsworth
Area: Noosa River, Queensland, Australia - Map It

Chemical contamination from farm runoff has been blamed after millions of fish larvae in the Noosa River were found to have grown two heads. The disfigured larvae are thought to have been affected by one of two popular farm chemicals, either the insecticide endosulphan or the fungicide carbendazim, the Courier Mail reports. Former NSW fisheries scientist and aquaculture veterinarian Matt Landos yesterday called on the Federal Government to ban the chemicals and urgently find replacements. Dr Landos said about 90 per cent of larvae spawned at the Sunland Fish Hatchery from bass taken from the river were deformed and all died within 48 hours.

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As the crow flies: birds flee Tehran's polluted air
Guardian - www.guardian.co.uk
13 Jan 2009
Area: Tehran, Iran

Exodus of the resilient black crow follows flight of other wildlife from Iranian capital. Tehran's notoriously bad air pollution has long been a health hazard for its 12 million people, but now the toxic mix of fumes has sent a different set of residents fleeing – the city's black crows. Environmentalists say the hitherto pollution-resistant population of crows have fled in large numbers in recent days after air quality reached crisis levels. Unregulated urban development has also destroyed the birds' habitats. The crow exodus occurred less than three weeks after high levels of carbon monoxide and other gases in the air drove off other species of bird, including nightingales and pigeons.

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Diving public diagnose coral diseases
ScienceAlert - www.sciencealert.com.au/news (Source: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies)
15 Jan 2009
Photo credit: iStockphoto
Area: Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Tourists, holidaymakers, divers and tour operators have been invited to become 'citizen scientists' and help with a major health check-up for Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Coral diseases have spread along the reef in recent years, and researchers suspect they may be triggered by human disturbances and climate changes. Coral diseases are implicated as major contributors to the devastation that has destroyed up to three-quarters of the corals in some regions of the Caribbean. Coral health has been a focus of a major investigation by coral scientists from the nation's leading research institutions over the past seven years, with upsurges in white syndrome and black band reported.

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K-State computer engineers working on system that can use the Internet to track human and animal diseases by extracting informat
Insciences Organisation - insciences.org
13 Jan 2009
Area: United States

Information that could help scientists and public health officials mitigate the spread of human and animal diseases may be as close as the nearest Internet connection. However, making sense of all of the information available is no easy task for human beings. That's why Kansas State University engineers are getting computers to do the heavy lifting. William Hsu, an associate professor of computing and information sciences, is working with Marty Vanier, director of operations for K-State's National Agricultural Biosecurity Center, to create a system that would extract information from the Web that offers clues about disease outbreaks. With a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, K-State is the lead institution and is working with Elder Research Inc. in Charlottesville, Va., Radiance Technologies Inc. in Huntsville, Ala., and the University of California-Davis.

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Anti-coagulant caused turkey deaths near Russell Springs
Hays Daily News - www.hdnews.net
14 Jan 2009
M Corn
Photo credit: James Ownby/State Symbols USA
Area: Russell Springs, Logan County, Kansas, USA - Map It

The mysterious deaths of at least 34 turkeys near the Logan County community of Russell Springs appears to have been caused by some type of anti-coagulant. In an effort to determine what type of chemical was involved, tissue samples have been forwarded to the University of California at Davis. UC-Davis is expected to first test for rodenticides, a class of poisons that would include Rozol, an anti-coagulant that has been used in Logan County to control prairie dogs. Preliminary results from that test should be available sometime Wednesday, according to Brad Odle, area wildlife supervisor for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: NOAA