Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Avian flu outbreak to result in mass cull
Vancouver Sun - vancouversun.com
25 Jan 2009
Photo Credit: I. Lindsay
Area: British Columbia, Canada - Map It

Nearly 60,000 turkeys from a B.C. farm will be killed as early as Monday after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed a positive test result for avian flu on the weekend. A spokesman for the federal agency said agricultural experts were spending Sunday preparing for the cull which would likely take place Monday or Tuesday.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

>>>Two-year-old girl contracts bird flu in Egypt
Area: Egypt - Map It

>>>Canada suspects avian flu outbreak; H5N1 hits more Bangladeshi farms

Chronic wasting numbers up slightly
Argus Leader - argusleader.com
26 Jan 2009
Area: South Dakota, United States - Map It

The Game Fish & Parks department has found a slight increase in the number of big game that tested positive to chronic wasting disease. The department’s biologists tested 2,052 elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer from July 1 to Jan. 20. Of the total samples, 27 specimens came back with a positive result. Last year, a total of 2,558 tests on deer and elk revealed 19 positive results.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

VHS threat shakes up fish hatcheries
Burlington Free Press - burlingtonfreepress.com
25 Jan 2009
L. Pyne
Area: Vermont, United States - Map It

The deadly fish disease VHS has yet to rear its ugly head in Vermont, but it is already casting a shadow across the Green Mountains. Hot on the heels of the stringent new baitfish regulations that were adopted last year -- which are designed to prevent the spread of VHS through the overland movement of fish -- the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department has decided that fish raised at the Ed Weed Fish Culture Station in Grand Isle will no longer be stocked in inland lakes and rivers in Vermont.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Elk tests, kills to start
Jackson Hole Daily - jhnewsandguide.com
24 Jan 2009

...In all, agency personnel have captured and handled just more than 1,200 elk in the first three years of the pilot project. From those animals, nearly 600 were test-eligible adult cows that were bled to test for exposure to brucellosis. Of the female elk bled, 113 tested seropositive for the disease and were removed from the population.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Sick bats swarming Rockaway Township
Daily Record - dailyrecord.com
23 Jan 2009
R. Jennings
Area: New Jersey, United States - Map It

An illness not seen before in New Jersey is believed to be afflicting local bats, prompting the winged mammals to flee hibernation and search for food, state and local officials confirmed today. Three bats — one found dead, and two captured alive on a house porch in Denville and near a local business — were sent to the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin and tentatively diagnosed with White Nose Syndrome according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

National HPAI Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) Update
NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node
19 Jan 2009
Area: United States

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) is an avian influenza data sharing repository. NBII and a network of partners across the nation have created HEDDS to hold data from different surveillance strategies and to provide a comprehensive view of national sampling efforts.

Recent HEDDS Activity

Jan 23, 2009: 345 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2008. Total is now 75,748.
Jan 16, 2009: 298 samples and tests were added to HEDDS for 2008. Total is now 75,403.
Jan 12, 2009: The LPAI H5N1 results table has been updated with information on samples collected on Dec 29, 2008 from a Canada goose in Goshen county, WY.

>>>HEDDS' LPAI H5N1 Results Table
>>>For more about HEDDS

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