Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Rare 'mountain chicken' frogs airlifted from path of deadly fungus
Guardian - www.guardian.co.uk
21 Apr 2009
J Aldred
Photo credit: Zoological Society of London
Area: Montserrat, Leeward Islands, Lesser Antilles - Map It

Conservationists have rescued a number of critically endangered "mountain chicken" frogs from the path of a fatal disease which has hit their Caribbean island home of Montserrat.

The decision to remove 50 mountain chicken frogs (leptodactylus fallax) from their natural habitat was taken in the face of the spread of the chytrid fungus, which is devastating amphibian populations worldwide.

The Zoological Society London (ZSL) and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, based in Jersey, have each provided a home for 12 of the frogs which have been removed from Montserrat. Another 26 have gone to Parken zoo in Stockholm.

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Time running out for Tasmanian devil
Australian Broadcastings News - www.abc.net.au
21 Apr 2009
C Duffy
Area: Tasmania, Australia

Scientists fear the window of time left to save the Tasmanian Devil is rapidly closing, and that in as few as five years, the biggest remaining marsupial predator may be on an unstoppable slide to extinction. Earlier this month, there was a breakthrough when a team from the University of Tasmania developed a blood test to identify devils infected with facial tumour disease.

However, they say a lack of funds is preventing their discovery from being fully utilised, and wildlife experts are warning the devil's decline is fundamentally changing the Tasmanian landscape. Conor Duffy reports from Hobart.

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Squirrels in Key Largo suffer from tumors, blindness
Miami Herald - www.miamiherald.com
22 Apr 2009
K Wadlow
Area: Key Largo, Monroe County, Florida, USA - Map It

Squirrels in Key Largo have been stricken by a virulent disease that causes grotesque tumors and often blindness.

The disease -- squirrel pox -- occurs nationwide in squirrel populations but has never been reported previously in the Florida Keys, said local wildlife experts.

''We started getting a lot of calls in late January, mostly from the area between [mile markers] 101 and 103,'' said Marsha Garrettson, manager of the Key Largo Animal Shelter run by the Humane Animal Care Coalition.

''It's really sad to see these guys,'' she said. ``They've got these nasty tumors. Sometimes they're blind because the tumors have matted their eyes closed.''

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Photo credit: Guardian - www.guardian.co.uk