TOP STORIES

Evidence Points to Weather in Pelican Deaths
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
15 Jan 2009
J McKinley
Photo credit: Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
Area: California, USA - Map It

What’s wrong with California’s pelicans? More than 400 endangered California brown pelicans have been found dead or dying since late December, with disoriented and starving birds turning up on highways, in backyards, and even in the Arizona desert. Now, though, after an investigation with all manner of sinister theories — from bird flu to poisoning by lingering fire retardant used to fight the region’s wildfires — California fish and game officials say they are closing in on a more usual suspect: Mother Nature. According to a preliminary report to be released on Thursday, many of the birds now flooding West Coast animal hospitals and rescue centers were caught in a brutal snowstorm and cold snap on the Oregon-Washington border in mid-December, setting off an arduous and often life-threatening commute to warmer climes.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Common soil mineral degrades the nearly indestructible prion
University of Wisconsin - Madison - www.news.wisc.edu
14 Jan 2009
T Devitt

. . . Now, however, a team of Wisconsin researchers has found that a common soil mineral, an oxidized from of manganese known as birnessite, can penetrate the prion's armor and degrade the protein. The new finding, which was reported earlier this month (Jan. 2) in the Journal of General Virology, is important because it may yield ways to decontaminate soil and other environments where prions reside. "Prions are resistant to many of the conventional means of inactivating pathogens," says Joel Pedersen, a UW-Madison environmental chemist and the senior author of the new study. For example, autoclaving, a standard method for sterilization in the laboratory, will reduce the concentration of prions in solution, but fails to eliminate them altogether, as it does for virtually all other types of pathogens.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Pathogenic prion protein is degraded by a manganese oxide mineral found in soils. J Gen Virol. 2009 Jan; 90: 275-280.

Elk in the cross hairs
Bozeman Daily Chronicle - www.bozemandailychronicle.com
14 Jan 2009
J Mayrer
Photo credit: Sean Sperry/Chronicle
Area: Gardiner, Park County, Montana, USA - Map It

Montana wildlife officials killed two radio-collared cow elk near Gardiner that had tested positive for exposure to brucellosis, a bacterial disease that can cause pregnant cattle, bison and elk to abort calves. The rest of the elk herd, which tested negative, will be allowed to continue grazing in the Paradise Valley and southcentral portions of Yellowstone National Park, where they spend most of the spring, summer and fall, Ron Aasheim, spokesman for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said Wednesday. So far, only wildlife near Yellowstone have tested positive for brucellosis, Aasheim said. “We have not found brucellosis anywhere else,” he said.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Poisoned birds sick in Perth parks
Perth Now - www.news.com.au/perthnow
15 Jan 2009
G Cordingley
Area: Belmont, Western Australia - Map It

The City of Belmont said several appear to have been affected by avian botulism, which causes paralysis of the legs, wings and neck. . . . Bird feeding is one of the contributing factors that results in high nutrient levels in waterways. The bread that is fed to birds contains between one and two grams of phosphorus. This is enough to make a volume of lake water the size of a backyard swimming pool nutrient-rich. Mayor Glenys Godfrey said locals and visitors to the area need to stop feeding the birds to prevent the occurrence of botulism. “If you need to feed birds feed then snails and worms instead of bread,” she said.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

No clear cause for coral die-offs
Monterey Herald - www.montereyherald.com (Source: Raleigh News & Observer)
15 Jan 2009
W Rawlins
Photo credit: NOAA Center for Monitoring and Assessment

. . . Bruno and fellow researchers found a strong correlation between higher temperatures and the frequency of coral disease on Australia's Great Barrier Reef in a study published last year, though he says the disease defied easy predictability. They noted that major outbreaks occurred only where coral cover was abundant after especially warm years. The results suggest that climate change could be increasing the severity of disease in the ocean and that predicted increases in temperatures in tropical oceans can make corals more vulnerable to disease in the future, Bruno says. Bruno and colleagues published a large-scale analysis of the extent of coral loss in the central and western Pacific Ocean by compiling 6,000 surveys of more than 2,600 coral reefs done over 36 years. The region contains about three-quarters of the world's coral reefs. Researchers found that since the late 1960s, nearly 600 square miles of reef have disappeared per year. That is twice the rate of the loss of rain forests. But Bruno doesn't think coral reefs will disappear.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Simon Hedges/Wildlife Conservation Society

• Huge Population Of Endangered Asian Elephants Living In Malaysian Park
• Snowmobilers kill 57 ducks in Fond du Lac County; days after deer killing - Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin - Map It
• Growing threat from feral swine has officials contemplating bounty to encourage hunting of the animals [pseudorabies, Michigan]
• Roads Present Invisible Barriers to Bats
• USDA CONTINUES EFFORTS TO KEEP INVASIVE SPECIES OUT OF THE UNITED STATES
• Genetics of extinction offers hope for the endangered [Tasmanian devils]
• New Lincoln Park Zoo initiative to focus on animal-human relationship [Chicago, Illinois]
• Free 'Pandemic Prevention' DVD offer [The Ecologist]
  
• Rabies - China: (Shandong)
• NOAA Grants Endangered Species Status to Black Abalone
  

WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS

Raccoons and Rabies: Biology and Behaviour [under peer review]
WildPro Volume from the Wildlife Information Network (WIN)