TOP STORIES

Peru battles rabid vampire bats after 500 people bitten

Four children in the Awajun indigenous tribe died after being bitten by the bloodsucking mammals.

Health workers have given rabies vaccine to more than 500 people who have also been attacked.

Some experts have linked mass vampire bat attacks on people in the Amazon to deforestation.

BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk
13 Aug 2010
Photo credit: Associated Press
Location: Urakusa, Peru - Map It

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Sask. prairie dog found dead of plague

Parks Canada officials are alerting the public after a Saskatchewan prairie dog was found dead of plague.

The carcass of the black-tailed prairie dog was found on the edge of the Larson prairie dog colony in Grasslands National Park in the southern part of the province.

Tests confirmed the rodent had been infected with the Yersina pestis bacteria, the same type of organism that causes bubonic and pneumonic plague in humans.

CBC News - www.cbc.ca
13 Aug 2010
Photo credit: Parks Canada
Location: Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada - Map It

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Crow tests positive for West Nile virus

The Provincial Animal Health Centre has confirmed that a dead crow from the Central Okanagan area has tested positive for West Nile virus (WNV).

This is the first positive case of WNV in a crow ever in B.C. and the first evidence of any WNV activity in the province this year.

To date, there have been no human cases or positive mosquito pools reported or identified in the province.

bclocalnews.com - www.bclocalnews.com
16 Aug 2010
Location: Okanagan, British Columbia, Canada - Map It

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'Bad Timing': Nature blamed for fish kill

The combination of an unusual rise in water temperatures and low oxygen levels in the water is the probable cause for a fish kill that caused scores of dead fish and crabs to wash up along the shoreline in Frank Pate Park last week.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) released tentative findings based on preliminary water quality readings.

There is no evidence that this particular event was related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

NewsHerald.com - www.newsherald.com
13 Aug 2010
M Dean
Location: Port St. Joe, Gulf County, Florida, USA - Map It

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OTHER RELATED WILDLIFE HEALTH NEWS
Photo credit: Javier Garcia, Conservation International

• Pictures: Bushy-Bearded Titi Monkey Discovered
• Chicago suburb deals with deadly deer disease - Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, USA - Map It
• How Algae 'Enslavement' Threatens Freshwater Bodies [journal article here]
• Veterinary Students Spend Summer Training for Disaster [foreign animal disease]
• Disaster in the making: Researcher warns of microbial threat to coral reefs, other ocean habitat
• Killer fungus wipes out frogs [Study: Identifying Genes That Help Amphibians Fight Deadly Fungus]
• Positive sign on CWD: Canadian researchers developing vaccine
• Invasive fish threaten Kenai: Fish and Game biologists discover northern pike in Hall Lake [Alaska]
• Bovine TB results offer cause for optimism [Minnesota]

Noise Pollution

• Human Noise Pollution in Ocean Can Lead Fish Away from Good Habitats and Off to Their Death
• Researchers To Study Effects Of Noise On Marine Mammals [audio]

Wildlife Crime

• WCCB Attempts to Mainstream Wildlife Crime in entire Criminal Justice System [India]
• Fish and Wildlife cracks down on illegal internet sales [Florida, USA]
• New force to fight wildlife crime [Scotland, UK]