Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Four Dead Beavers Test Positive for Tularemia

Two of the four beavers found dead in Telluride’s Beaver Pond last week have tested positive for tularemia, Telluride Parks and Rec Public Works Project Manager Karen Guglielmone reported Monday.

. . . Town residents reported the beaver deaths to authorities last week, following earlier reports that, despite the warm temperatures, no beavers had been sighted in the pond.

Guglielmone estimated as many as eight beavers could have been living in the Beaver Pond lodge, where it’s possible more dead beavers will be found.

The Watch - www.watchnewspapers.com
27 April 2010
M Tarbell
Location: Telluride, Colorado, USA - Map It

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Double whammy for amphibians

It's clear that the world's amphibians are in trouble – many species have become extinct since the 1980s.

What's less obvious is exactly what's causing the problem; climate change and a chytrid fungus are both suspects.

Now a US team has linked the extinctions to increased temperature variability caused by El Niño events. They believe this is reducing amphibian's defences against disease.

Environmental Research Web - environmentalresearchweb.org
28 April 2010
L Kalaugher
Photo credit: R Paselk/Humboldt State University

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Journal Article Cited

Linking global climate and temperature variability to widespread amphibian declines putatively caused by disease. PNAS. Published online 19 April 2010.

Bat disease spreading faster, farther in Tennessee

A mysterious fungus that has wiped out millions of bats in the northeastern United States is spreading across Tennessee faster than expected, biologists say.

The state's first case of white-nose syndrome was reported last February in a cave in Sullivan County, in upper East Tennessee. Since then, infected bats have been found in four more caves on the Cumberland Plateau.

Cory Holliday, cave specialist for The Nature Conservancy, said biologists found bats infected with early stages of the fungus as recently as a few weeks ago.

The Republic - www.therepublic.com
27 April 2010
M Simmons
Photo credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Location: Tennessee, USA - Montgomery County - Map It

; Fentress County - Map It

; Van Buren County - Map It

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More White-nose Syndrome News

>>> State checking for disease at bat colony west of Utica [Illinois, USA]

>>> Metro-east's only underground state park closes to save bats [Illinois, USA]

Animal Instincts: Animal-based diseases account for 75 percent of newly emerging infectious diseases

. . . A cocktail of pig, bird, and human disease? That shouldn't sound as surprising as it does. As many as 75 percent of newly emerging infectious diseases in humans, including bird and swine flus, are "zoonoses," meaning they originate in animals.

Other zoonotic killers include HIV/AIDS (transmitted to humans by wild African chimpanzees) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (bats). Even malaria, which was long thought to have evolved alongside humans, now appears to be zoonotic.

. . . This pattern has not, however, translated to adequate public-health preparation. One big reason: we're not looking hard enough for clues.

Newsweek - www.newsweek.com
27 April 2010
C Kalb

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OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS