Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Sex reversal in fish linked to chemical cocktail
Environmental Health News - environmentalhealthnews.org
2 Mar 2009
Area: United Kingdom - Map It

Research using a powerful statistical model suggests that chemical mixes in wastewater feminize male fish. Scientists in the United Kingdom report that more than one type of hormonally active chemical -- not just those that act like estrogen -- play a role in sex reversal of male fish. Like estrogenic compounds, these other pollutants are also found downstream of wastewater treatment plants in rivers across the country.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Statistical modeling suggests that anti-androgens in wastewater treatment works effluents are contributing causes of widespread sexual disruption in fish living in English rivers. Environmental Health Perspectives doi:10.1289/ehp.0800197.

Watching hungry goats: Viral disease called 'orf' rumored to be in local population [contagious pustular dermatitis]
Juneau Empire - juneauempire.com
1 Mar 2009
Area: Alaska, United States - Map It

I was concerned about a viral disease called "orf" or, more properly, "contagious ecthyma" that affects sheep, goats and musk oxen, especially. It is endemic in some populations of bighorn sheep in British Columbia and has been rumored to affect our local mountain goat populations.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Sudsy Demise: A soapy red tide causes a mysterious California bird kill
Conservation Magazine Journal Watch Online - journalwatch.conservationmagazine.org
22 Feb 2009
Photo Credit: Luckynick, Dreamstime.com
Area: Monterey, California, United States - Map It

Scientists say they’ve solved the mystery of what killed the hundreds of seabirds that washed onto Monterey Bay, California’s shores in late 2007. Their answer identifies a previously unrecognized cause of death. ... Their investigation produced the real culprit: a sudsy foam that stripped the natural waterproofing from the birds’ feathers. A red tide — a major algae bloom that can harm wildlife and humans – had produced the previously unknown substance, they found.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Mass Stranding of Marine Birds Caused by a Surfactant-Producing Red Tide.
PLoS ONE

Wildlife and Parks finds more CWD cases
Wichita Eagle - kansas.com
28 Feb 2009
M Pearce
Area: Northwestern Kansas, United States - Map It

Five more cases of chronic wasting disease have been found in white-tailed deer, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks announced Friday night. All were shot in northwestern Kansas, during the 2008 seasons within deer management unit 1. That brings the total of deer known to have the disease to eight for that season.

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Pushing the Envelope:
Maps predicting where species will move could be off base
Conservation Magazine Journal Watch Online - journalwatch.conservationmagazine.org
27 Feb 2009
Photo Credit: Matt Jeacock, iStockphoto.com

Birds are shifting their ranges north, and butterflies are fleeing up mountains. Predicting where exactly they and other species will live as the earth warms has become something of a cottage industry among biologists. A paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, however, points out a potential fatal flaw of these forecasts: they assume that climate is the only factor that limits a species’ turf.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Duncan, R.P. et al. 2009. Do climate envelope models transfer?
A manipulative test using dung beetle introductions.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B

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