Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Malaria Drug Is Found to Curb Deadly Infections Spread From Animals
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
09 Mar 2009
DG McNeil Jr.

Scientists have discovered that an old antimalaria drug is effective against two fatal viruses that recently jumped from animals to humans. The closely related viruses, Nipah and Hendra, live in the fruit bats sometimes called flying foxes and are believed to infect animals that eat fruit contaminated with the bats’ urine or saliva. Nipah was discovered in 1999, when it was blamed for the deaths of 106 people in Malaysia and Singapore, mostly farm or slaughterhouse workers who got it from pigs. Since 2001, Nipah has killed more than 100 in Bangladesh and India.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Health alert over rise in bushmeat trade
East African - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
07 Mar 2009
P Redfern
Area: Kenya and United Kingdom

Large amounts of illegal bushmeat continue to be sold to the public in Kenya and are even shipped to UK markets, a new report says. The trade is important not only because many of the species killed for their meat are under threat but also because eating illegal bushmeat can leave humans vulnerable to devastating viruses such as Ebola and HIV. UK-based conservation organisation Born Free, which has been monitoring the illegal trade, has now produced a video to highlight the issue. It says rising food prices, a rash of crop failures and wide-ranging impacts of the global recession have led to a rise in bushmeat trade in Kenya.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Genome scan may save Tasmanian devils from cancer
Nature - www.nature.com
03 Mar 2009
EC Hayden
Photo credit: Children's Cancer Institute Australia
Area: Tasmania, Australia

Researchers are hoping that sequencing the genomes of Tasmanian devils will help to save them from extinction. Devil facial tumour disease is killing the animals as it spreads across the island of Tasmania. Now, researchers say they have found a genetic 'signature' of resistance to the fatal disease. They want wildlife managers to use gene scans to identify Tasmanian devils with the signature of resistance and breed them during this year's breeding season.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated USGS National Wildlife Health Center
10 Mar 2009
Area: United States

USGS and a network of partners across the country work on documenting wildlife mortality events in order to provide timely and accurate information on locations, species and causes of death. This information was updated on Mar 04, 2009 on the USGS National Wildlife Health Center web page, New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide. Quarterly Mortality Reports are also available from this page. These reports go back to 1995.

>>>Updated Wildlife Mortality Event Table

World's oceans face an acid test
BBC News - news.bbc.co.uk
10 Mar 2009
R Harrabin

Studies in the Southern Ocean by Australian scientists found that the shells of tiny amoeba-like creatures called foraminifera have become thinner since the Industrial Revolution. The scientists say this shows that increasing CO2 uptake in the ocean has a direct effect on the ability of micro-organisms to make shells. The paper, being presented at the University of Copenhagen's International Scientific Congress on Climate Change, will add to a rising tide of scientific concern over ocean acidification. Already, ocean acidity has increased about 32% since pre-industrial times.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Coral reefs may start dissolving when atmospheric CO2 doubles

>>>3 Major Reports Paint Same Picture: Ocean Fish Are Rapidly in Decline

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED STORIES
Photo credit: Earth Times - www.earthtimes.org

Pictured: Rare apes found in central Vietnam - correction
White-nose syndrome, bats - USA (05): (PA) [discussion about cavers possibly spreading WNS]
How mosquitoes could teach us a trick in the fight against malaria
News: Rare Javan Rhinos Filmed
Undiagnosed deaths, bovine - Pakistan: (FATA) RFI
Fish provides new clues to purpose of 'mad cow' protein
Bird flu mix-up could have spelled disaster
TWRA: Birdseed at feeders linked to deaths of songbirds - Northwest Tennessee, USA - Map It
6.8-M pounds of trash removed from the sea

WILDLIFE DISEASE PUBLICATIONS

Emerging Infectious Diseases - Ahead of Print

Lobomycosis in Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), NorthCarolina, D.S. Rotstein et al.
Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis Infection in a Pet Parrot, E.J. Shitaye et al.

>>>ALL AHEAD OF PRINT ARTICLES