Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Fence hope for Tasmanian Devils
BBC News - news.bbc.co.uk
05 Jan 2009
Photo credit: Getty images
Area: Tasmania, Australia

Australian scientists say they want to build a fence on Tasmania to prevent the spread of a cancer that threatens the Tasmanian Devil with extinction. The scientists say there is no cure for the contagious disease which has already infected two-thirds of Tasmania's devil population. They warn that unless action is taken the world's largest marsupial carnivore could be extinct within 20 years. They hope a fence will separate the healthy and infected animals.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Sympathy for the devils: cubs are hope for species

Almost 200 Dead Ducks Found Near Ammon
KIFI News 8 - www.localnews8.com
02 Jan 2009
Area: Ammon, Bonneville County, Idaho, United States - Map It

State wildlife officials are trying to determine what killed 175 mallard ducks along a well outflow ditch, about 3 miles east of Idaho Falls in the town of Ammon. The first ducks were found dead by a concerned resident Monday, December 29. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game was notified, and conservation officers found 175 dead ducks along the well outflow ditch in a housing subdivision. Fish and Game has collected and disposed of the carcasses.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Papillomavirus researchers aim to save manatees
The Courier-Journal - www.courier-journal.com
03 Jan 2009
L Ungar
Photo credit: Patrick M. Rose, Save the Manatee Club
Area: Louisville, Kentucky

Two University of Louisville researchers acclaimed for helping invent the world's first cervical cancer vaccine are now being honored for research that could help save endangered manatees. Scientists working to rehabilitate injured manatees started to see that a close cousin of the human papillomavirus, which causes most cervical cancer in women, was infecting the 1,000-pound sea mammals in captivity. Worried the sick animals could infect others in the wild, they enlisted the help of Dr. A. Bennett Jenson and colleague Shin-je Ghim, world-renowned papillomavirus researchers.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Local herd target of sheep study
Gunnison Country Times - www.gunnisontimes.com
05 Jan 2009
W Shoemaker
Area: Gunnison, Colorado, United States

An icon of the Rocky Mountains may see better days thanks to a study involving local Colorado Division of Wildlife staff and a few of the Gunnison Valley's bighorn sheep. Wildlife managers hope that the experimental program -- which is set to commence early in 2009 and will focus partly on sheep in the Gunnison Basin -- will give them a proven course of action for improving "lamb recruitment. Disease in bighorn sheep is widespread throughout the West. Locally, the Fossil Ridge and Taylor Canyon herds have seen die-offs in recent years and have struggled to bounce back.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

National HPAI Early Detection Data System (HEDDS) Update
NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node
05 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 2, 2009: The LPAI H5N1 table has been updated with information on results from a sample collected from a Mallard in Monmouth, NJ on Sep 18, 2008.
Jan 2, 2009: The LPAI H5N1 table has been updated with information on results from a sample collected from a Northern pintail in Brown, SD on Sep 18, 2008.
Jan 2, 2009: The LPAI H5N1 table has been updated with information on results from a sample collected from a Mallard in Butler, IA on Sep 20, 2008.

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

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