Wildlife Disease News Digest

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PlagueBusters: Nathan Wolfe looks for pandemics before they start
Scientific American - www.sciam.com
27 Mar 2009
A Hadhazy
Image Credit: Scientific American

Bubonic plague. AIDS. Yellow fever. Some of the greatest scourges mankind has ever faced – and those that may yet spark a pandemic, such as bird flu – all originated as infectious agents in animals that then made the jump into human beings. It’s no accident that close contact between man and rats in medieval towns led to the Black Death, and that people hunting primates in the African bush provided an avenue for AIDS to spread throughout the world.

>>>FUL L ARTICLE

Related Article
>>>Bird-Flu Resistant Fowl

WDIN Highlights - January/February 2009
Volume 4, Issue 01/02

In this issue:

Main Article - Highlighted Activities from 2008/ pg. 1 - 3
Upcoming Wildlife Disease Related Events/ pg. 1
Side Lights - What is on the horizon for WDIN?/ pg. 2
In the Spotlight - A Citation Library of Wildlife Disease Literature / pg. 4
Newly Added Web Resources to WDIN/ pg. 4

>>> HIGHLIGHTS BULLETIN

Deer testing offers cause for optimism in bovine TB battle
Grand Forks Herald - grandforksherald.com
29 March 2009
B Dokken
Area: Skime, Minnesota, USA - Map It

Ground and aerial sharpshooters working in the core area of a bovine tuberculosis outbreak near Skime, Minn., had killed 486 deer and a bull elk as of early this past week, and none of the animals showed any clinical signs of the disease, a Department of Natural Resources official said.

>>>F ULL ARTICLE

Related Bovine Tuberculosis Articles
>>>TB tests scandal angers farmers [UK]

>>>Northern Ireland: Re-think on TB needed

>>>United Kingdom-Where has TB Erradication gone wrong

INL looking for ways to control brucellosis
CBS KIDK - kidk.com
30 Mar 2009

The livestock disease brucellosis, which causes animals to abort their offspring, has cost ranchers millions and may affect a huge population of wildlife. The Idaho National Laboratory is working on ways to control the disease from spreading even further.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Answers sought for bat die-off
Market Watch - www.marketwatch.com
29 Mar 2009

As many as 90 percent of Connecticut's bats have died during winter hibernation after being infected by a rare fungus usually only found in Arctic tundra regions, and scientists are working to find a cause before the "white-nose syndrome" is spread to the large bat populations of the U.S. South, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Sunday.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related Articles
>>>Connecticut Has Key Role In Search For Cause Of White-Nose Syndrome In Bats [Video]
>>>Disease still kills bats in Vermont
>>>This Bat Mystery Needs Resolving

Coyote in Grant County found to have rabies
Silver City Sun-News - www.scsun-news.com
28 Mar 2009
H Wise
Area: Gila, Grant County, New Mexico, USA - Map It

A coyote tested positive for rabies Thursday, becoming the eighth animal in Grant County to have the disease, the New Mexico Department of Health reported Friday. So far this year, there have been five reported cases of rabid foxes and two rabid bobcats.

The coyote was roaming between houses in Gila and lying in the road in the middle of the day, said Silver City Wildlife Conservation Officer Jon Armijo. A homeowner recognized the abnormal behavior and shot it.

According to Dr. Paul Ettestad, a veterinarian for the state Department of Health, animals thought to be rabid are examined at a state lab. Pieces of the animal's brain are studied under a microscope during testing and the rabies virus will become fluorescent, he said.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Related Articles
>>>Surveillance cut from provincial rabies program [New Brunswick, Canada]
>>> Rabies: Deadly and preventable

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Image courtesy of ecoworldly