Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Chilly temperatures take toll on manatees
Florida Today.com - www.floridatoday.com
24 Feb 2009
J Waymer
Location: Brevard County, Florida, USA - Map It

Twice the usual number of manatees died from the chilling temperatures this winter in Brevard County, and more may succumb as lingering effects of cold snaps take their toll.

"Even if the water temperatures go up, manatee can still suffer cold stress for the next few weeks or even months," said Martine de Wit, associate researcher at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

In a year with a record manatee count, cold spells claimed at least 11 manatees in Brevard from Jan. 1 through Sunday and 29 statewide. That compares with a five-year average of 5.6 cold stress deaths in Brevard for the entire year and 28 statewide.

. . .During cold snaps, sick and emaciated manatees wash up dead with a slew of skin sores and infections that have puzzled marine mammal pathologists for decades.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Coral disease works like cholera
Science Alert - www.sciencealert.com.au
26 Feb 2009

The complexities of coral disease are starting to be unravelled with the key revelation that a similar mechanism that causes cholera in humans may be causing White Syndrome (WS) in coral.

Mr Meir Sussman, a postgraduate student at James Cook University,working with Australian Institute of Marine Science Dr David Bourne, coral biologist Dr Bette Willis at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, and colleagues from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and the Palau Coral Reef Center, have published a paper showing for the first time how bacterial WS kills coral.

A bacterial zinc-metalloprotease enzyme has been revealed as central in the WS disease process. The enzyme carries out a two-pronged attack, first causing whitening of coral tissue as symbiotic algae are targeted, and subsequently causing coral tissue lesions. This two-stage process leads to the distinctive appearance of bands of white coral skeleton typical of the disease.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article

>>> Vibrio Zinc-Metalloprotease Causes Photoinactivation of Coral Endosymbionts and Coral Tissue Lesions. PLoS ONE. 2009; 4(2): e4511 [free full-text available]

More Coral News

>>> Warm oceans slow coral growth

Sharpshooting begins in NW Minnesota bovine TB core area
Grand Forks Herald.com - www.grandforksherald.com
24 Feb 2009
Location: Near Skime, Minnesota, USA - Map It

Sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have begun working in the core area of a bovine tuberculosis outbreak near Skime, Minn., as part of an effort to help the Department of Natural Resources further reduce the deer population.

The sharpshooting and disease-testing efforts will continue on the ground through the first part of April, and an aerial deer-shooting operation is scheduled for as long as two weeks in mid-March. Ground operations may be extended if warranted.

“Our continued goal is complete eradication of bovine TB from Minnesota,” said Ed Boggess, deputy director with the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife in St. Paul. “The state’s aggressive approach remains the best chance of relatively short-term actions achieving long-term benefits for wild deer and livestock in Minnesota.”

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Troubled waters in Tanzania [Tuberculosis]
Daily Democratic - www.dailydemocratic.com
23 Feb 2009
A Kent
Location: Tanzania, Africa - Map It

. . . [Deana Clifford] is working with her project's lead researcher, Jonna Mazet, co-director of the School of Veterinary Medicine's Wildlife Health Center, and Harrison Sadiki, a Tanzanian veterinarian and regional field coordinator, to understand the risks of pathogens to people living in close contact with livestock under rough environmental conditions.

They call their project HALI, which is both a Swahili word meaning "state of health" or "state of being" and an English acronym for Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement. Underlining the mission of their project is the "one health" principle, which acknowledges the importance and interrelationship of health for people, health for animals and health for the environment.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Climate Change Hurting Hares: White Snowshoe Hares Can't Hide On Brown Earth
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
24 Feb 2009

University of Montana researcher Scott Mills and his students have noticed an exceptional number of white snowshoe hares on brown earth. He contends that climate change and the color mismatch are causing much more hare mortality.

For the past decade, Mills has directed teams of biologists and students to investigate snowshoe hares on more than 35 study sites in Montana, Wyoming and Washington, including just outside UM’s back door near Seeley Lake. . . .

Increasingly Mills and his students have noted an exceptional number of white hares on brown earth. Radio telemetry data revealed spring and fall to be the most deadly seasons for hares and a bonanza for predators.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

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