Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Cancer Kills Many Sea Lions, and Its Cause Remains a Mystery

For 14 years, since they first reported that a disturbing proportion of deaths among rescued California sea lions were caused by metastatic cancer, researchers have been trying to pinpoint the source of the illness.

. . . “It’s such an aggressive cancer, and it’s so unusual to see such a high prevalence of cancer in a wild population,” Dr. Gulland said.

“That suggests that there’s some carcinogen in the ocean that could be affecting these animals.”

The New York Times - www.nytimes.com
04 March 2010
I Chen
Photo credit: H Schumann/The New York Times

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Ten Kansas Deer Confirmed Positive in Chronic Wasting Disease Tests

On March 2, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) announced that 10 white-tailed deer from northwestern Kansas had tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD).

These were animals taken by hunters in the 2009 hunting seasons.

The agency is still awaiting the result from another deer sample that was presumed to be positive after preliminary testing at the K-State Diagnostic Veterinary Lab in Manhattan.

Kansas City infoZine - www.infozine.com
04 March 2010
Location: Kansas, USA - Map It

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Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated

USGS and a network of partners across the country work on documenting wildlife mortality events in order to provide timely and accurate information on locations, species and causes of death. This information was updated on March 02, 2010 on the USGS National Wildlife Health Center web page, New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide. Quarterly Mortality Reports are also available from this page. These reports go back to 1995.

USGS National Wildlife Health Center
08 March 2010
Area: United States

>>> Updated Wildlife Mortality Event Table