Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Fish and Wildlife Service Awards $800,000 in Grants to Explore Cause, Control of White-Nose Syndrome in Bats
YubaNet.com
26 Oct 2009
Photo credit: M Moriarty/USFWS

At an event held in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo in Washington, DC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced 6 grant awards totaling $800,000 going toward research efforts to explore the cause and control of white-nose syndrome, a wildlife health crisis of unprecedented proportions that has now killed more than a million bats in the Northeast and remains unchecked.

“These grants will provide critical funding to help the Service and our partners find the cause, find a cure and stop the spread of this deadly disease,” said Interior’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Jane Lyder.

“Bats are an incredibly important component of our nation’s ecosystem, and the loss of even one species could be disastrous for wildlife, agriculture and people.”

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Bats reintroduced to Vt. caves hit by white nose

New tools in the fight against frog-killing fungus available online
Scientific American - www.scientificamerican.com
27 Oct 2009
J Platt

. . . Knowing how the chytrid fungus kills is important, but identifying it before it spreads to new populations is even more vital. Early identification is key.

Kerry Kriger, founder of the Save the Frogs Foundation, recently conducted a course at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, which presented a method to detect and quantify the number of Bd zoospores present on frogs' skins. He has also made the information available for free online.

The highly detailed protocol, the first of its kind that has been made publicly available, uses quantitative (real-time) polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to identify the fungus and its concentration on a frog. The protocol also provides examples of how to properly swab frogs of various sizes to obtain samples for testing.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

[qPCR protocol available here]

Marine Lab Team Seeks To Understand Coral Bleaching
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
26 Oct 2009
Photo courtesy of NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service)

With technology similar to that used by physicians to perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, researchers from six institutions -- including the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) -- working at the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) in Charleston, S.C., are studying the metabolic activity of a pathogen shown to cause coral bleaching, a serious threat to undersea reef ecosystems worldwide.

. . . In this study, the levels of three compounds -- betaine, glutamate and succinate -- that help regulate energy production and osmotic pressure (a mechanism for maintaining cellular integrity) in V. coralliilyticus were determined to vary significantly between 24 degrees Celsius when the bacterium is not virulent and 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) when it is.

These metabolic changes, the HML team believes, are clues to learning why the small temperature change can turn non-virulent V. coralliilyticus into a coral bleaching menace.

>>> FULL ARTICLE [cited journal article]

Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary Among Healthiest Coral Reefs In Gulf Of Mexico

Scientists Map Fish Habitat And Movements At Gray's Reef Marine Sanctuary [cited journal article]

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