Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Contaminated Salmon Make Unhealthy Meals for Killer Whales
UC Davis News & Information - www.news.ucdavis.edu
12 Feb 2009

A new study funded by UC Davis shows how killer whales (orcas) in the Pacific Northwest accumulate contaminants such as PCBs, which can reduce their ability to fight disease and have healthy offspring.

The contaminants are coming from the chinook salmon that are the majority of the whales' diet, said study lead author Donna Cullon of the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans of Canada. And the salmon are acquiring the contaminants while at sea, not while in rivers -- a finding that could help conservation efforts.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Sea Otters' Diet is Clue to Slow Recovery
UC Davis News & Information - www.news.ucdavis.edu
12 Feb 2009

UC Davis researchers trying to understand the sea otter's slow recovery in California have found an important clue: Some sea otters feed almost exclusively on animals that raise their risk ofbeing infected with potentially deadly parasites.

. . . “Higher levels of disease may be an unfortunate consequence of adaptations sea otters have made when preferred food is not available,” said Christine Johnson, one of the study's lead authors and a veterinary epidemiologist at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center, in the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Johnson said this study was unusual because it used an epidemiological approach typically used in human health, not wildlife, and reached across diverse disciplines and institutions.

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Hunter-Killed Elk Test Negative for CWD and Other Diseases
Pennsylvania Game Commission - www.pgc.state.pa.us
10 Feb 2009
Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Samples taken from the 39 hunter-killed elk during the state’s 2008 hunting season have all tested negative for chronic wasting disease (CWD). . . . Samples also tested negative for brucellosis and tuberculosis.

Cottrell noted that the Game Commission still is awaiting the results of CWD testing for the 4,247 hunter-killed deer samples collected during the 2008 rifle deer season.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Other Deer Health News

>>> Chronic Wasting Disease Not Detected in Ohio Deer [Ohio DNR Press Release]

>>> ND Senate begins debate on big-game baiting ban

>>> Kane preserve tested for deer disease [Illinois, USA]

>>> 10baiting [Michigan, USA][includes video]

Toxics DDT, Domoic Acid Linked to Sea Lion Seizures
Environmental News Service - www.ens-newswire.com
12 Feb 2009
Location: Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary - Map It

and Channel Island National Park, California, USA - Map It

Exposure to two environmental poisons during brain development can increase the number of epileptic seizures and their intensity in California sea lions, and possibly in humans, according to new research by federal government scientists.

The pesticide DDT and domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by harmful algal blooms, has each been linked separately with poisoning during birthing season at the Channel Island sea lion rookeries. The threat caused by their interaction is only now being investigated.

The interaction between the two toxics, was studied by Dr. John Ramsdell, an environmental scientist at the NOAA National Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research laboratory in Charleston.

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Village Bird Study Highlights Loss Of Wildlife Knowledge From One Generation To Another
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
13 Feb 2009

Our ability to conserve and protect wildlife is at risk because we are unable to accurately gauge how our environment is changing over time, says new research in Conservation Letters.

. . . The new study provides the first evidence of so-called 'shifting baseline syndrome' - a conservation theory which says that people's perception of the environment is determined by what they see now, with their own eyes, and does not take into account what things were like in the past.

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Cited Article

Evidence for shifting baseline syndrome in conservation. 2009 Feb; [Epub ahead of print]

Emergency network from NOAA in the works
The Post and Courier - www.charleston.net
12 Feb 2009
B Petersen

The coincidence is staggering — a right whale and dolphins wash up on Sullivan's Island, a fish kill surfaces in Charleston Harbor, crows start to drop at the old Navy base. It could be an environmental catastrophe. It could be bioterrorism. People could be next.

Normally, different agencies would be called to each incident, one not always knowing what the other is doing. Minutes, if not hours, could be lost responding. However, very soon a computer program might pick up the various reports, connect the dots and issue alerts in real time to emergency managers.

An Environmental Surveillance Network, one of the first of its kind, is being developed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research center at Fort Johnson. It could be expanded into a national network, becoming a vital component of homeland security.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Other Marine Mammal News

>>> Statistics Paint Grim Picture For Sea Turtles

>>> Killer Whale researcher wins first-ever Salish Sea Science prize

>>> Entangled Sea Lions [Assignment Earth video]

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED STORIES
Photo courtesy of Star Tribune