Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

US Wildlife Trade Poorly Regulated, Threatening Food Supply Chains, Human Health, Ecosystems
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
30 Apr 2009
Photo courtesy of Discovery News

Wildlife imports into the United States are fragmented and insufficiently coordinated, failing to accurately list more than four in five species entering the country, a team of scientists has found. The effect, the scientists write in the journal Science, May 1, is that a range of diseases is introduced into the United States, potentially decimating species, devastating ecosystems and threatening food supply chains and human health.

The research by Brown University, Wildlife Trust, Pacific Lutheran University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Global Invasive Species Programme comes as Congress begins deliberating the Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act (HR 669), which would tighten regulations on wildlife imports. At a hearing last week before the House Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife, wildlife experts discussed how nonnative species and plants can disrupt ecosystems.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Cited Article

>>> Reducing the Risks of the Wildlife Trade. Science. 2009 May 01; 324(5927): 594 - 595

Related Article

>>> Pet Trade Introduces Diseases, Costs

>>> Report shows US wildlife trade poorly regulated

Bats' homes off-limits because of disease
The Columbus Dispatch - www.columbusdispatch.com
29 Apr 2009
S Hunt
Photo courtesy of Capital News
Location: Ohio, USA

Thousands of caves and old mines in national forests, including the Wayne National Forest in Ohio, have been closed to people as the government tries to slow a mysterious disease that's wiping out bats.

Abandoned mines in the Wayne are well-known among biologists as winter havens for hibernating bats. Banning visitors could help keep white-nose syndrome from extending into Ohio, officials say. Discovered in New York in 2006, the disease has spread to eight other Eastern states, including Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The syndrome is named for a white fungus that grows on bats' faces, ears, wings and feet.

>>> FULL ARTICLE [includes small map]

Related Bat News

>>> Bat mortality rate catastrophic [includes video 1 min 58 sec]

>>> Some National Forest Caves and Mines Closed to Protect Endangered Bat Species [Ohio; Vermont; and West Virginia, USA]
>>> White Nose Syndrome Affecting Bats and the Environment
>>> Bat disease forces cave closures at Mark Twain National Forest

Norwegian Red Foxes Have More Trichina, But Less Scabies Than Previously
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
27 Apr 2009
Photo courtesy of Science Daily

Trichina worms (Trichinella spp.) are roundworms that can invade a wide range of animals and man. People are most often infected through eating trichina-containing pork. For her doctorate, Rebecca Davidson investigated the incidence of trichina in red foxes in Norway. Her findings show that red foxes throughout Norway are liable to become infected, but that the parasite is most common in southern and especially south-eastern areas.

The most frequently-found Trichinella species in the red fox, T. nativa, is strongly resistant to freezing and thawing, making it ideally suited to survival in the Norwegian climate. Trichinella nativa is only slightly infectious in pigs, which means that the parasite represents little danger for people through the consumption of pork. The doctorate also shows that fox scabies is less common now than it was in the 1990's and that the percentage of healthy foxes with antibodies to the parasite has increased. This finding indicates that the scabies mite and its fox host have to a certain extent adapted to each other.

>>> FULL ARTICLE

Rescue group calls N.J. river a deadly spot for marine animals
New Jersey.com - www.nj.com (source: Associated Press)
17 Apr 2009

First came a harp seal that strayed from the Sandy Hook Bay into the Shrewsbury River and died. Then came a harbor porpoise. And a loggerhead turtle. And three common dolphins, all found dead.

Still more dolphins died in August, September and October. Two harbor seals, too. All told, 17 large marine animals were found dead or dying in the Shrewsbury River over the past year. Just two survived.

New Jersey has 127 miles of coastline and more than 100 rivers and creeks. Yet one in 10 marine strandings or deaths occur in the Shrewsbury and an adjacent tributary, the Navesink River, making them the single deadliest spot for large marine animals in the state, a leading rescue group said.

. . . But two leading marine mammal scientists caution that those numbers may be misleading. They say it is entirely possible many of the animals -- particularly those that live far offshore like common or white-sided dolphins -- could have died in the ocean and that their bodies floated into the river with the tides.

>>> FULL ARTICLE [includes image gallery]

Other Marine Mammal News

Experts: Gray whale found near Point Whitehorn likely died of trauma, not starvation [ Washington, USA - Map It