TOP STORIES
Stress disease kills Australia’s koalas
Associated Press - www.ap.org
29 Sep 2009
T Smith
Photo credit: R Griffith/AP
Koalas live in the rolling hills and flat plains where eucalyptus trees grow, because they need the leaves for both food and water. But as people move in, koalas are finding themselves with fewer trees, researchers say. The stress is bringing out a latent disease that infects 50 to 90 percent of the animals.
"Koalas are in diabolical trouble," says researcher Frank Carrick, who heads the Koala Study Program at the University of Queensland. "Numbers show that even in their stronghold, koala numbers are declining alarmingly."
Disease may be ravaging silvereyes
Newstalk ZB - www.newstalkzb.co.nz
30 Sep 2009
. . . The survey is designed to monitor the distribution and population trends of common garden birds in New Zealand.
It has found a decreasing number of silvereyes. There were 6.4 silvereyes per garden this year compared with 8.9 last year and 10.2 in 2007
Observers believe disease could be the cause of the reduction in numbers. Silvereyes with growths around the bill and eyes were reported last year. The growths could have been avian pox, a virus that can be transmitted by contact with infected birds, when they congregate around bird feeders, for example, or by ingestion of contaminated food or water.
Did Tyrannosaurus rex suffer from a common bird disease?EurekAlert! - www.eurekalert.org
29 Sep 2009
Paleontologists Ewan Wolff (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Steve Salisbury (University of Queensland), Jack Horner (Museum of the Rockies) and David Varricchio (Montana State University), published new research in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLoS ONE that found the Tyrannosaurus rex and its close relatives suffered from a potentially life-threatening infectious disease similar to one that occurs in living birds known as trichomonosis.
Trichomonas gallinae infections are most prevalent in pigeons which are generally immune. Birds of prey are particularly susceptible to trichomonosis if they eat infected pigeons. Adult birds can then pass the disease to their nestlings through beak-to-beak contact.
. . . Some of the world's most famous T. rex specimens, such as 'Sue' at the Field Museum in Chicago, and the holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh have holes like these in their lower jaw.
"The holes in tyrannosaur jaws occur in exactly the same place as in modern birds with trichomonosis. The shape of the holes and the way that they merge into the surrounding bone is very similar in both animals," Dr Wolff said.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
- State confirms disease killing off deer
- Deer hunters encouraged to participate in disease surveillance testing [Minnesota, USA]
- Michigan hunters reminded about deer, elk import restrictions
- Union fully backs minister's decision to proceed with TB eradication order [Wales]
- TB Strategy Up For Review [New Zealand]
- Man pleads guilty to smuggling birds from Vietnam
Huh, That's Interesting
- Monkeys 'reject vegetarianism' [includes video]
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Browse complete Digest publication library here.
USFWS Endangered Species Bulletin - Summer 2009
Finding a New Future for Corals, page 12 -13. [pdf][free-full text available]
Journal of Wildlife Management - September 2009
Volume 73, Issue 7
Veterinary Parasitology - October 2009
Volume 164, Issue 2-4
Veterinary Pathology - November 2009
Volume 43, Number 6
The Wildlife Society, The Wildlifer - September 2009
Issue 354
Selecting for extinction: nonrandom disease-associated extinction homogenizes amphibian biotas
Ecology Letters. 2009; 12(10): 1069 - 1078
KG Smith et al.
