Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Bighorn battle could doom sheep ranchers
Native American Times - nativetimes.com
9 Mar 2009
E Barker
Photo Credit: Idaho Nature Conservancy
Area: Hells Canyon, Idaho, USA - Map It

A battle on the steep slopes of the Snake and Salmon river canyons that pits one of Idaho’s most iconic wild animals against one of the state’s historic industries is inching toward a conclusion. ... The complex issue boils down to a simple reality in the eyes of wild sheep advocates and game and land managers. When wild bighorns and their domestic cousins mix, the bighorns die from pneumonia. Scientists don’t know all the hows or whys. But game and land managers say the science is clear enough for them to proclaim the two species should be kept apart.

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Bovine TB rate up slightly in NE Michigan deer
MLive.com - mlive.com (source: Associated Press)
9 Mar 2009
Area: Michigan, USA - Map It

State wildlife officials say deer in a four-county area of northeastern Michigan were infected with bovine tuberculosis at a slightly higher rate in 2008 than during the previous year.

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Disease sucking life out of bat population
Greencastle Banner Graphic - bannergraphic.com
9 Mar 2009
M Ward
Photo Credit: B Leach

First the honeybees were afflicted with a mysterious ailment and now bats are dying. An unprecedented die-off of thousands of hibernating bats in the Northeast has caused biologists and researchers from around the country to try to determine the cause, and to assess the threat to bat populations nationwide. The disorder, dubbed white-nose syndrome (WNS) because of the presence of a white fungus around the muzzles of some affected bats, is a major concern to the bat conservation community.

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Related Article
>>>Disease taking a bite out of bat population

When Viruses Jump Species
Science Line - scienceline.org
8 Mar 2009
L Konkel
Photo Credit: AJ Cann

A recent Ebola Reston outbreak among pigs in the Philippines is cause for concern among some scientists. ... When a virus jumps to a new host, especially a domestic animal such as pigs, alarm bells go off because it can be more easily transmitted to humans than from a wild animal, according to Tom Geisbert, associate director of Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. Scientists are unsure which animal species is the reservoir for the virus – the original host from which Ebola jumps to other animal species or to humans.

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Into bat for the pipistrelle
The Age - theage.com.au
9 Mar 2009
C Ricci
Photo Credit: The Age
Area: Christmas Island, Australia - Map It

In the mid 1980s, pipistrelle bats were widespread throughout the island, numbering in their thousands. Long-term monitoring over the last two decades, however, has shown a severe decline in numbers and a contraction of its habitat. In January this year, surveys estimated that as few as 20 bats remain. In the only known communal roost, just four bats were found. Three years ago, this same roost contained 54 bats and several other colonies of the same size were known to exist.

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