TOP STORIES
Across the northern Rocky Mountains, bighorn sheep are dying by the hundreds from pneumonia and alarmed wildlife officials are hunting and killing the majestic animals to halt the spread of the disease.
Since winter, nine disease outbreaks across five states in the West have claimed nearly 1,000 bighorns, prized as a game animal for the prominent curled horns of the adult males, or rams.
Scientists recently confirmed what they long suspected -- the cause of the plague is contact between the wild bighorns and domestic sheep flocks.
Reuters - www.reuters.com
02 Oct 2010
L Zuckerman
Photo credit: Reuters/Ryan Hagerty/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Handout
Photo credit: Reuters/Ryan Hagerty/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Handout
Location: United States
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - Russia: (KX) wild birds, RFI - Archive Number 20101001.3566
The Territorial Administration of Rosselkhoznadzor [Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance] for [Krasnoyarsky Krai (Krasnoyarsk territory) -- see comment at end] reports that a mass mortality of wild birds was detected on Lake Tagarskoe of the Minusinskiy Rayon [Minusinsk district] of [Krasnoyarsk] on 18 Sep 2010.
By estimate over 1000 birds died. The reason for the deaths is being determined now.
Samples of the pathological material have been taken from dead birds and sent to KGBU "Regional veterinary laboratory" of [Krasnoyarsk] and to FGI "ARRIAH" [Federal Centre for Animal Health, OIE Regional Reference Laboratory for FMD for Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Transcaucasia in Vladimir, Russia]. [Birds do not die from FMD (foot-&-mouth disease). - Mod.JW]
ProMED-mail - www.promedmail.org
27 Sep 2010
27 Sep 2010
Location: Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia - Map It 
. . . In Dusy Basin, a remote glacial valley in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks a few miles west of Bishop Pass, Vance Vredenburg, a professor of biology at San Francisco State University, is conducting an experiment he hopes will help preserve what remains of these once abundant creatures.
Dr. Vredenburg and his colleagues are inoculating chytrid-infected frogs with a bacteria, Janthinobacterium lividum, or J. liv, that does not prevent infection with chytrid but can help frogs survive.
Dr. Vredenburg, Reid Harris of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., and colleagues found the symbiotic bacteria on several amphibian species.
New York Times - www.nytimes.com
04 Oct 2010
E Rex
Photo credit: Anand Varma
Location: California
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: K Browne
- Ancient giant penguin unearthed in Peru
- Keep Looking for That Extinct Mammal
- Magnificent coral reefs discovered [Israel]
- Disappearance of Inyo Chipmunks From Sierra Nevadas Alarms Researchers
- 1000 rare tortoises poached each week in Madagascar
- Acidification of Oceans May Contribute to Global Declines of Shellfish
- Migration Blues: When Birds Don't Fly South
- Marine census publication marks 'decade of discovery'
- AVMA lauds U.S. House expansion of public health incentive programs to veterinarians; Senate action needed
- Climate Change Forcing a 'Move It or Lose It' Approach to Species Conservation?
- Climate Change Affects Horseshoe Crab Numbers
