Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Zoo's young elephants making good progress
STLtoday - www.stltoday.com
13 Mar 2009
Area: St. Louis Zoo, Missouri

The St. Louis Zoo's two Asian elephant calves, Jade and Maliha, continue to make good progress in fighting elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), a potentially fatal disease in young elephants. On Friday, March 6, both calves were taken off their antiviral medications. "We will continue to monitor them very closely every day for symptoms of EEHV and check their blood levels regularly," emphasizes Martha Fischer, curator of mammals. "EEHV is never gone, and we'll be extremely vigilant as we always have been with this disease."

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Possible WNS in Virginia bats causes concerns
SWVA Today - www.swvatoday.com
17 Mar 2009
J Simmons
Area: Virginia, United States

A fungal carpetbagger has likely made its way to Virginia, endangering the lives of what a wildlife biologist termed the state’s most effective “nighttime insecticide.” The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has sent multiple specimens to a Wisconsin lab for testing on the suspicion that white-nose syndrome in bats has migrated farther south after first being spotted in New York just more than two years ago. Although the VDGIF doesn’t expect official confirmation until the end of the month, wildlife biologist Rick Reynolds said now is the time to take precautions against the spread of the disease.

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Second sea lion killed after state finds virus
Columbian.com
13 Mar 2009
E Robinson
Photo credit: Oregon Fish and Wildlife Service
Area: Bonneville Dam, Multnomah County, Oregon, USA - Map It

A second sea lion captured near Bonneville Dam had a viral infection that made the animal unsuitable for relocation to an aquarium and was put to death Friday. State authorities on Thursday euthanized another California sea lion suffering from the same affliction. Officials said a viral lesion indicates both animals — one trapped Tuesday, the other Wednesday — had cancer that could have spread to other animals. "I know it is fairly common," said Craig Bartlett, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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Chernobyl Radiation Still Harming Animals
Discovery News - dsc.discovery.com
18 Mar 2009
J Viegas
Area: Chernobyl, Ukraine

The Chernobyl disaster, a nuclear reactor explosion and subsequent fire on April 26, 1986, which spewed highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere, continues to harm animal populations in the Ukraine, according to a new study. The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, presents the most extensive data set ever compiled on the abundance of animals at and around the Chernobyl site. "Abundance" is relative in this case, however, since scientists Anders Moller and Timothy Mousseau determined that insect, bird and other animal populations have dramatically diminished there in the two decades following the disaster. "Chronic, continuous exposure to low dose radiation appears to be the cause," Mousseau, director of the Chernobyl Research Initiative at the University of South Carolina, told Discovery News.

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Cited Journal Article
>>>Reduced abundance of insects and spiders linked to radiation at Chernobyl 20 years after the accident. Biol. Lett. 2009 Mar 18. Epub ahead of print.

Saving Seals Can Unlock Secret to Saving Oceans
VOA News - www.voanews.com
18 Mar 2009
E Celeste
Photo credit: E Celeste/VOA
Area: Maine, United States

. . . Matassa explains that the center's research is geared towards identifying new diseases and antibiotic resistances. "The diseases we're interested in are morbillivirus - which is a canine distemper which affects seals -, leptospirosis, brucella, West Nile virus, eastern equine encephalitis, toxoplasmosis, diseases along that line. Bacterial diseases, viral diseases, things that we can test [for in] the seals without being invasive in our research." He adds that seals can contract many human diseases, including pneumonia and West Nile virus. In the lab, they also test local water samples.

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: National Geographic News - news.nationalgeographic.com