Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Feces May Transmit Fatal Cheetah Disease
Scientific American - www.sciam.com
12 May 2008
JR Minkel
Photo courtesy of Yumi Une / National Academy of Sciences, PNAS

A fatal, Alzheimer's-like disease that attacks cheetahs' internal organs and has impeded breeding of the cats in captivity may be spread by their feces. Researchers from Japan and China report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that the disease, AA amyloidosis, was transmitted to mice exposed to fecal proteins from a cheetah that died of it. The cheetah is classified as an endangered species. Only 12,000 to 15,000 are believed to remain in about 25 countries, down from 100,000 in 44 countries in 1900, according to the Cheetah Conservation Fund.

Breeders would like to have a self-sustaining population of cheetahs in captivity, but in North America only 20 percent of captive cheetahs reproduce, and only 75 to 80 percent of cubs survive to reproductive age, says Adrienne Crosier, a reproductive biologist at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Thanks to inbreeding, cheetahs have greater susceptibility to diseases such as AA amyloidosis, which is among a group of disorders characterized by the accumulation tangles of misfolded protein called amyloid fibrils. Other diseases in the group include Alzheimer's and type 2 diabetes in humans as well as the prion (infectious protein) diseases such as scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (aka mad cow disease) and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk. In cheetahs amyloid fibrils build up in the spleen and liver, typically following an inflammatory stomach disease.

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Cited Journal Article
>>>Fecal transmission of AA amyloidosis in the cheetah contributes to high incidence of disease - Prc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2008 May 12; [Epub ahead of print]

Uganda: Scientists Screen Reptiles to Trace Sleeping Sickness
allAfrica.com
05 May 2008
K Ngatya
Area: Uganda

Scientists have started screening crocodiles, monitor-lizards, snakes and other reptiles to establish whether they are reservoirs for sleeping sickness and nagana disease parasites countrywide. This follows a new study which found that domestic animals are reservoirs for sleeping sickness. The veterinary doctors have made recommendations based on this study to the Government to vaccinate all goats, pigs, cattle and sheep. sleeping sickness affects people, while nagana affects animals. The reptile screening is on realisation that the animals harbour sleeping sickness parasites even though they do not get sick themselves.

However, the disease is picked by tseflies bites and passed on to people. Dr Loyce Okidi, the head of Sleeping Sickness Research Programme at the National Livestock Resources Research Institute (NaLIRRI) said their preliminary observations indicate that the reptiles offer blood meals to tsetse flies in the wild. The diseases are transmitted by the flies when they suck blood from an infected host. "Although no study has established that these parasites can thrive comfortably inside the reptiles, we are treating them suspiciously," she noted.

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'Ark' designed to rescue imperiled amphibians
Contra Costa Times - www.contracostatimes.com (Source: Washington Post)
12 May 2008
J Eilperin
Photo courtesy of J Maher/Wildlife Conservation Society

The 300 Kihansi spray toads residing in a small room at the Bronx Zoo chirp cheerily as they bask in a light sprinkling of water 14 times a day. Until a few years ago, the tiny, mustard-colored toads existed only in a river gorge in Tanzania. Now the survivors are confined to the Bronx and Toledo zoos, having gone extinct in the wild. With thousands of amphibian species facing unprecedented threats to their survival, scientists have launched a global effort to collect them in zoos to save them from disappearing altogether. Named Amphibian Ark, the program aims to keep 500 species in captivity and breed enough to eventually reintroduce them into the wild.

. . . Perhaps more important, however, may be a chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, which researchers say has caused amphibian populations to plummet in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia. Researchers at the National Zoo first described the fungus in 1999. It attacks keratin proteins in the skin, and because amphibians breathe through their skin, this creates respiratory problems. While scientists are still debating the connection between chytrid fungus and global warming — some believe they are inextricably linked, while others dispute this — experts agree that the disease helps explain why amphibians are in such dire condition. The Bronx Zoo's Kihansi spray toads fell prey to several pressures, including habitat destruction and, most likely, the fungus and pesticides.

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Winter feeding on elk refuge exceeds historical average
Billings Gazette - www.billingsgazette.net (Source: Associated Press)
12 May 2008
Area: Wyoming United States

The National Elk Refuge near Jackson provided supplemental feeding for elk and bison for nearly a month longer than average this year as the animals sought sustenance during the long, harsh winter, refuge officials said. The refuge put out more than 8.4 million pounds of alfalfa pellets over 98 days ending April 20. Only once in the past 27 years did feeding continue past that date, according to the refuge. "There's so much snow in the mountains, the elk didn't really have anywhere else to go," refuge manager Steve Kallin said. The feeding season also was extended up to several weeks at most of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's 22 elk feedgrounds, said Brandon Scurlock of the department's Pinedale office.

. . . But with the congregation of thousands of animals from the Yellowstone area on the refuge's feeding grounds, there's a serious risk of a disease outbreak, refuge officials and local conservation groups said. There were about 8,000 elk and 900 bison on the refuge this winter, according to the refuge. That's considerably higher than the target numbers - 5,000 elk and 500 bison - contained in a management plan for the refuge and Teton National Park. "Concentrating this many animals for this length of time is certainly placing the elk at risk of a major disease outbreak," Kallin said. "We can't expect to be this lucky every year, especially at these high population numbers." The concentration of animals in a small feeding area can result in elk spreading diseases such as brucellosis and foot rot. About 90 elk have shown symptoms of foot rot, the refuge said.

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