Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Scientists: What's killing all the gray whales?

Scientists are planning to cut open and examine a newly dead gray whale found on a local beach in hopes it can provide insight into what's killing so many of the large marine mammals in Puget Sound this year.

. . . In the past 10 days, five dead gray whales have been found - four in Puget Sound waters and the fifth near Vancouver, B.C. Three of those have died just in the past week.

Gorman said that is an unusually high number in such a short time span, and scientists aren't sure what is causing the high death rate.

KOMO News - www.komonews.com
15 Apr 2010
Photo courtesy of KOMO News

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Establishment of a northeast wildlife disease consortium

The 66th Annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference is being held in Newton, Massachusetts, April 25 - April 27 is hosting the session, Wildlife Disease and Health. Included in this session will be a panel presentation, Establishment of a northeast wildlife disease consortium.

The following groups, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University; NH Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, University of New Hampshire; and the Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, University of Connecticut, propose to establish the Northeast Wildlife Disease Consortium (NWDC), a state, federal, and private sector cooperative structure that provides wildlife health and disease expertise in the Northeast U.S. The Consortium would comprise state governments, local people, and the private and public (i.e.- non-profit) sectors who, in collaboration, investigate disease and manage the health of wildlife populations in the Northeastern U.S. The Consortium's dedication to wildlife health in this region alone would address chronic challenges to getting prompt and timely results in disease investigations, providing diagnostics both for live specimens and carcasses.

66th Annual Northeast Fish and Wildlife Conference - http://www.neafwa.org
15 Apr 2010
Image courtesy of the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

>>> TO FULL PANEL SESSION ABSTRACT

White nose decimates Vt. bat population

As the sun begins to set on Mount Aeolus, wildlife biologists are making the two-mile climb to Vermont's largest bat cave... fearful of what they may find.

"It's been a long time since we've seen a live one," commented Scott Darling of the Vt. Fish & Wildlife Department.

. . . Up until very recently the Mount Aeolus cave was the largest bat cave in all of New England with upwards of 300,000 bats. Today those numbers have dwindled to only a couple hundred.

WCAX News - www.wcax.com
14 Apr 2010
K Harsha
Photo courtesy of WCAX News

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The Factors Behind Geography Of Human Disease

If your home region has a hot, wet climate and a lot of different kinds of birds and mammals living in it, there's a really good chance the region will also contain numerous kinds of pathogens that cause human diseases.

A new study examining the geography of human disease, led by Dr. Rob Dunn at North Carolina State University alongside an international team of biologists and social scientists, shows that that one can predict the number of kinds of disease-causing pathogens in a region just by knowing its climate or the number of birds and mammals found there.

Multiple things, Dunn says, might influence the diversity of pathogens in a region: human population size and density, the amount of time people have lived there or expenditures on disease control. Each of these undoubtedly has some influence, but the environment is dominant.

RedOrbit - www.redorbit.com
16 Apr 2010

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