Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Jeepers Creepers! Climate Change Threatens Endangered Honeycreepers
USGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
26 May 2009
Photo credit: USGS
Area: Hawaii, United States

As climate change causes temperatures to increase in Hawaii’s mountains, deadly non-native bird diseases will likely also creep up the mountains, invading most of the last disease-free refuges for honeycreepers – a group of endangered and remarkable birds.

A just-published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) review discusses the likelihood of a forthcoming “disease invasion” by examining the present altitudinal range of avian malaria and pox, honeycreeper distribution, and the future projected range of diseases and honeycreeper habitat with climate change.

At one time, the Hawaiian Islands had no mosquitoes – and no mosquito-borne diseases. But, by the late 1800s, mosquitoes had set up permanent housekeeping, setting the stage for epidemic transmission of avian malaria and pox. Honeycreepers – just like people faced with novel viruses such as swine flu – had no natural resistance against these diseases.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Study ties pollution to strandings of marine mammals
SouthCoastToday - www.southcoasttoday.com
26 May 2009
D Fraser
Area: Massachusetts, United States

The Cape is one of the top areas in the world for marine mammal strandings. Animals are sometimes loaded with parasites or are sick. But, despite a long history of polluting the coastal waters, the toll it takes on sea creatures has been harder to establish.

Eric Montie, a University of South Florida scientist who did most of his research while a doctoral student at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, believes he may have found one link between coastal pollution and brain development in marine mammals that may explain why some animals wash ashore.

In a recently published study in the journal Environmental Pollution, Montie showed how dangerous man-made contaminants were able to bond with a thyroid hormone and make it into the brains of marine mammals.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Organohalogen contaminants and metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid and cerebellum gray matter in short-beaked common dolphins and Atlantic white-sided dolphins from the western North Atlantic. Environ Pollut. 2009 Apr 16. Epub ahead of print.

Other Marine Mammal News
>>>5 Dolphins Found Dead Off SoCal Coast - Santa Rosa Island, Santa Barbara County, California, USA - Map It

>>>'Foul play' blamed for Kauai monk seal death
>>>Sea Lion Rescue

Reported Wildlife Mortality Events to the USGS National Wildlife Health Center Updated
USGS National Wildlife Health Center
26 May 2009
Area: United States

USGS and a network of partners across the country work on documenting wildlife mortality events in order to provide timely and accurate information on locations, species and causes of death. This information was updated on May 21, 2009 on the USGS National Wildlife Health Center web page, New and Ongoing Wildlife Mortality Events Nationwide. Quarterly Mortality Reports are also available from this page. These reports go back to 1995.

>>> Updated Wildlife Mortality Event Table

Scientists find deadly fungus in Luzon
BusinessMirror - businessmirror.com.ph
21 May 2009
J Mayuga
Photo courtesy: AFP
Area: Luzon, Philippines - Map It

SCIENTISTS conducting frog surveys in two areas in Luzon have discovered a deadly fungus that could send amphibians—particularly frogs—to extinction.

The discovery of the chytrid fungus has prompted the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to sound the alarm, and DENR Secretary Lito Atienza has ordered the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) to formulate a national strategy for monitoring frog populations throughout the country.

“We cannot discount the possibility that global warming is promoting the spread of this fungus because according to studies, rising temperature allows it to enter places where these amphibians reside,” Atienza said.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Guardian News