Wildlife Disease News Digest

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One Health Summit and study setting stage for policies, initiatives

JAVMA News - www.avma.org/onlnews

1 January 2010

Photo courtesy of the National Academies

A recent summit and an upcoming study will help the One Health Commission and other advocates of the one-health concept in developing policies and initiatives to increase collaboration among the fields of human, animal, and ecosystem health.

. . . Health experts convened the summit to raise awareness of the importance of transcending institutional and disciplinary boundaries to improve health for all species. The half-day summit attracted about 150 attendees representing government, academia, scientific associations and institutions, the private sector, and the military.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

>>> California global health institute established

Cholera killed 2,000 birds
Amarillo Globe-News - www.amarillo.com
30 December 2009
J Gamm

Location: Dalhart, Texas, USA - Map It

Experts have confirmed the cause of death of more than 2,000 migratory birds near Dalhart earlier this month.

Specimens of dead snow geese, Canada geese and ducks were sent for testing after they were found dead the second week of December, and all tested positive for avian cholera.

. . . Officials said about 1,000 dead birds were found Dec. 14 on Lake Rita Blanca, just south of Dalhart, and the rest were discovered on a nearby wetland.

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Pace of bat die-off called historic
Chicago Tribune - www.chicagotribune.com

22 December 2009

R Buck

The die-off of bats across the Northeastern states is now so severe that federal wildlife officials consider it "the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife caused by infectious disease in recorded history."

Since 2006, when hibernating bats in a cave in New York state were found coated with a chalky fungus, the so-called white-nose syndrome affecting bats has hopscotched from New Hampshire to West Virginia, sometimes wiping out entire caves of bats in a single winter.

. . . This fall, biologists from Pennsylvania and New York conducted "swarming counts" of bats as they congregated before entering their hibernating caves. These surveys confirmed that many common species of bats are experiencing mortality rates of more than 90 percent.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

More White-Nose Syndrome News

>>> Deciphering Mystery Of Bat-Killing Fungus

>>> White-nose syndrome in bats update

Big decision on bighorns

Yakima Herald-Republic - www.yakima-herald.com

29 December 2009

S Sandsberry

Photo credit: G King/Yakima Herald-Republic

Location: Yakima County, Washington, USA - Map It

Fourteen years ago, a pneumonia outbreak among bighorn sheep in Hells Canyon along the Snake River killed about 300 of the animals, leaving a scene one scientist called "like a war zone ... sheep lying dead everywhere you looked."

Wildlife experts are urgently working to prevent that from happening again in the Yakima River Canyon.

Since the first week of December, about 10 bighorns on the west side of the canyon have died from pneumonia and dozens more have become infected.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

More Bighorn Sheep Disease News

>>> After 6 more sheep put down, biologists likely done culling herd hit by pneumonia [Location: Ravalli County, Montana, USA - Map It

]

Wild deer disease surveillance continues; new bovine TB positive deer confirmed
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - www.dnr.state.mn.us
21 December 2009

Location: Minnesota, USA - Map It

With test results for the entire fall sample of hunter-harvested deer in northwestern Minnesota pending, tissue samples from one suspect deer submitted for expedited testing have come back positive for bovine tuberculosis (TB).

The National Veterinary Services Lab in Ames, Iowa, confirmed the test Dec. 16, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Minnesota Board of Animal Health (BAH). ”This deer is just one of more than 1,400 samples we collected from hunters since the opening of the season,” said Dr. Michelle Carstensen, DNR Wildlife health program coordinator.

. . . Complete results of these tests, along with the test results from the 2,685 samples collected in southeastern Minnesota for CWD testing, are not expected for about two months, she added.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

More Deer News
>>> Population 5,000: State of the Elk Refuge [brucellosis, chronic wasting disease]
>>> Solution to CWD looks like less deer [Wisconsin, USA]

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