Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Unexplained Lesions Found on Stranded Jersey Seals
NBC New York - www.nbcnewyork.com
08 December 2009
V Laattanzio
Photo courtesy of NBC Philadelphia

Location: New Jersey, USA [Ocean County - Map It ] and [Atlantic County - Map It ]

Baby seals may look cute and cuddly, but wildlife officials in New Jersey are warning residents who come across the mammals to stay away.

That's because two of the last four stranded pups that washed up on Jersey Shore beaches had unexplained lesions on their faces and flippers.

"It's something we haven't seen before," Bob Schoelkopf of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center said. Center officials aren't sure if the wounds -- which resemble a large, raw sore -- are caused by a viral infection or contagious disease.

>>> FULL ARTICLE [includes video, 1:30]

Strike Two: Another veterinary drug found to be fatal to vultures
Conservation Magazine - journalwatch.conservationmagazine.com
09 December 2009
R Kwok
Photo credit: Snowleopard1/iStockPhoto

Vultures in South Asia have been dying from eating livestock carcasses tainted with diclofenac, a veterinary drug. Now researchers have found that a similar drug called ketoprofen is also fatal to the birds.

Both treatments fall into a category called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

While diclofenac is known to cause kidney failure and death in vultures, evidence of such effects had not been found for ketoprofen.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Journal Article Cited
>>> Toxicity of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to Gyps vultures: a new threat from ketoprofen. Biology Letters. Online 09 December 2009.

African Dust Harming Corals?

Discovery News - news.discovery.com
09 December 2009
M Reilly
Photo credit: J Delay/Associated Press

African dust that billows across the Atlantic Ocean and settles in the Caribbean Sea is laced with toxic pollutants, and could be sickening the region's coral reef ecosystem.

. . . Coral throughout the Caribbean have started dying. Some researchers blame rising ocean temperatures, or damage from growing local populations.

A few, like the group led by Virginia Garrison of the United States Geological Survey in St. Petersburg, Fla., think it's the dust.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Related News

>>> Scientists Work To Protect Cuba's Unspoiled Reefs [includes audio, 7:20]

Outdoors: Disease dwindles amphibian count
The News-Herald - www.news-herald.com
08 December 2009
J Frischkorn
Photo courtesy of The News-Herald

Spring may be growing quieter as a worldwide pandemic fungal disease is killing off entire populations of amphibians: frogs, toads, salamanders and similar creatures.

And Northeast Ohio is not immune from the chytridiomycosisfungus, either.

. . . "But we don't have enough information yet to determine whether these amphibians are dying from the fungus or something else. It's just one piece in the puzzle."

>>> FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo courtesy of The Weekly Press