Wildlife Disease News Digest

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No High Risk Avian Influenza Viruses Found in Canada's Wild Birds
Canada News Centre – news.gc.ca
12 Jun 2008
Location: Canada - Map It

The Government of Canada is committed to preventing the introduction of avian influenza in Canada’s domestic poultry flocks. Canada’s 2007 Interagency Wild Bird Influenza Survey confirmed no findings of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Canada’s wild bird population.
Initially launched in 2005, the annual survey is a joint initiative between federal, provincial and territorial governments as well as the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) and Canada’s Avian Influenza Laboratory Network.

The 2007 survey included testing of wild birds along main Canadian migratory routes as well as in Iceland, where birds were sampled during their migration from Western Europe to the Canadian Arctic.

As with previous surveys, the 2007 survey found various low pathogenicity AI subtypes, including both H5 and H7. These detections are expected. Low pathogenicity influenza viruses commonly circulate in wild birds with little or no impact on the health of birds or people.

>>> FULL PRESS RELEASE

>>> Canada’s 2007 Survey Results

Other Avian Influenza News

>>> Univ. given $5M for avian flu research

>>> Some Bird Flu Strains Have Acquired Properties That Might Enhance Potential To Infect Humans (cited PNAS article here)

Journal slams Canada's handling of epidemics
Vancouver Sun – www.canada.com
13 June 2008
S Kirkey

The Canadian Medical Association Journal calls it a "national embarrassment" that 12 of the 13 provinces and territories are under no obligation to share information with the federal government or the rest of Canada during a disease outbreak.

In an editorial released Thursday, the journal says a massive epidemic or pandemic "could kill tens, or hundreds of thousands of Canadians within weeks or months." Yet the federal government and provinces can't agree on how they would share crucial information, a situation the journal says has reached a "ridiculous, potentially tragic, level."

"If there is another epidemic of a SARS kind or an avian influenza kind, Canada is, among developed countries, probably the worst prepared," says Amir Attaran, Canada Research Chair in law, population health and global development policy at the University of Ottawa and lead author of the editorial. "And it's for bureaucratic reasons. It's not that our scientists are incompetent, it's not that our doctors can't do great things or our hospitals are poorly equipped. It's simply for the fact that, in an emergency, time equals lives."

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Cited Editorial

>>> A legislative failure of epidemic proportions. 2008 Jul 01; 179(1)

Expanding wind industry hits bats, turbulence and lawsuits
Earth News – www.earthportal.org
12 Jun 2008
Location: West Virginia, USA - Map It

The prospect of thousands of endangered bats flying to their deaths in West Virginia wind turbines soon could get consideration in federal court because of Judy Rodd.

The 63-year-old is the president of Friends of Blackwater Canyon, which recently joined 10 other groups in filing a “notice of intent” with the Fish and Wildlife Service to sue a wind company on Endangered Species Act grounds. The organizations warned of potential turbine kills of the Indiana bat, Virginia big-eared bat and Virginia northern flying squirrel.

“Yes, we’re concerned about climate change,” said Rodd in a phone interview. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t build the turbines somewhere else and let the bats live.”

As the wind industry experiences exponential growth, developers increasingly are facing legal challenges on everything from local noise statutes to state tax regulations to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, many analysts say. Wind supporters claim that a small group of plaintiffs are misusing the legal system, while those fighting projects say they genuinely are protecting the public and landscape.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photograph courtesy of ABC Science