TOP STORIES

Badlands officials investigating deer die off
Rapid City Journal - www.rapidcityjournal.com
02 May 2009
Area: Badlands National Park, Pennington County, South Dakota, USA - Map It

A combination of winter storms and parasites are suspected in the deaths of more than 30 mule deer in Badlands National Park from mid-March to mid-April.

Lack of forage and possibly other diseases also could have contributed to the deaths of the weakened animals. The carcasses were found near the park headquarters and along park roads after recent storms.

"In the past, we haven't had many mortalities," park spokesman Brian Kenner said Friday. "There probably are a lot more than 30, but we don't know that. We haven't gone out and done any extensive searches."

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Scientists discover key carrier link behind fish disease
FIS United States - www.fis.com
04 May 2009
N Real
Photo credit: Aqua.stir.ac.uk/marlab.ac.uk
Area: United Kingdom

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) researchers have discovered that fish can carry and spread proliferative kidney disease (PKD), which can infect and kill large amounts of fish, particularly in fish farms. The finding opens the door for research on more specific treatments for the disease.

. . . Adams and Morris have now found that native fish can also spread PKD, not just suffer from it. "We were able to show that the parasite that causes deadly PKD in fish could cycle between brown trout and bryozoa indefinitely," Adams said, the Science Daily reports. The team has also constructed a working model for studying the parasite’s lifecycle, information that will be imperative in developing measures to fight off PKD.

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Ancestor of HIV in primates may be surprisingly young
Biology News Net - www.biologynews.net (Source: Public Library of Science)
01 May 2009

The ancestors of the simian immunodeficiency viruses (SIVs) that jumped from chimpanzees and monkeys, and ignited the HIV/AIDS pandemic in humans, have been dated to just a few centuries ago. These ages are substantially younger than previous estimates, according to a new study from The University of Arizona in Tucson, published May 1st in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology.

SIV has crossed over from chimpanzees and sooty mangabeys to humans at least eleven times, giving rise to several HIV lineages. Although HIV is a virulent pathogen in humans, SIV rarely causes disease in these species or the dozens of other African primate species it naturally infects.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Dating the Age of the SIV Lineages That Gave Rise to HIV-1 and HIV-2. PLoS Comput Biol. 2009 May 01. Epub ahead of print.

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED STORIES
Photo credit: Environmental News Network

• Emergency Action Taken for Threatened and Endangered Sea Turtles: Six-month Closure Ordered of Gulf of Mexico Fishery
• Feds: 2 dead dolphins likely from NJ river group [New Jersey]
• Study: Grazing threatens wildlife habitat in West
• Ocean Acidification: Understanding How Mussels Have Adapted To Extremely Acidic Waters Near Underwater Volcanoes
• Eels in crisis after 95% decline in last 25 years [Europe]
• Yellow fever - South America (28): Brazil

WILDLIFE RELATED HEALTH PUBLICATIONS
Browse complete Digest publications library here.

Contact Networks in a Wildlife-Livestock Host Community: Identifying High-Risk Individuals in the Transmission of Bovine TB among Badgers and Cattle
PLoS ONE. 2009; 4(4): e5016 [free full-text available]
M Bohm et al.

Identification of a Bartonella Species in the Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) and in Seal Lice (Echinophtirius horridus)
Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. 2009; Epub ahead of print
D Morick et al

Changing patterns of West Nile virus transmission: Altered vector competence and host susceptibility
Veterinary Research. 2009; 40:43
AC Brault

Susceptibility of Fox Squirrels (Sciurus niger) to West Nile Virus by Oral Exposure
Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases. 2009; Epub ahead of print
S Tiawsirisup et al.