Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Stingrays suffer from contact with wildlife tourists
The Hindu - www.hindu.com (source: Guardian News Service)
30 May 2009
D Adam

. . . A study has revealed that stingrays at a tourist hotspot in the Cayman Islands are suffering because of all the human attention. The Grand Cayman sandbank, known as Stingray City, is regularly swamped with up to 2,500 visitors at a time, most of whom have paid handsomely for the chance to feed, stroke and swim with the creatures.

The study highlights the risks to animals posed by the growing "wildlife tourism" industry. Experts say wild populations of creatures such as dolphins, penguins and sharks are also affected by increased contact with curious people.

The study was one of the first to investigate the direct effects on the physiology of animals involved in such tourism. Blood tests showed that the stingrays at Stingray City had weaker immune systems and were in poorer health than animals not disturbed by tourists, perhaps making them more vulnerable to disease and storms.

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Why Coral Reefs Around The World Are Collapsing
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
29 May 2009
Photo courtesy of Science Daily

An explosion of knowledge has been made in the last few years about the basic biology of corals, researchers say in a new report, helping to explain why coral reefs around the world are collapsing and what it will take for them to survive a gauntlet of climate change and ocean acidification.

Corals, it appears, have a genetic complexity that rivals that of humans, have sophisticated systems of biological communication that are being stressed by global change, and are only able to survive based on proper function of an intricate symbiotic relationship with algae that live within their bodies.

After being a highly successful life form for 250 million years, disruptions in these biological and communication systems are the underlying cause of the coral bleaching and collapse of coral reef ecosystems around the world, scientists report . . .

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Cited Article

What Determines Coral Health? - Science. 2009

More Climate Change News

>>> Climate change amplifying animal disease

>>> Starfish defy climate change gloom

>>> Counting Sheep In Climate Change Predictions [includes journal citation]

Bald Eagle Apparently Died Of Lead Poisoning
The Greeneville Sun - www.greenevillesun.com
30 May 2009
Location: Tennessee, USA - Map It

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory has determined that a bald eagle found dead on Norris Lake in late February apparently died of lead poisoning.

The necropsy (an autopsy most commonly performed on animals) ruled out death by gunshot wounds, chemical poisoning, trapping, or power line electrocution, according a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service news release.

Lab personnel, in consultation with the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center, determined the eagle's liver contained elevated levels of lead, leading scientists to conclude the eagle died of lead poisoning, the release said.

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Dolphin's death concludes Mote's 38-year study of its life
Naples Daily News - www.naplesnews.com
29 May 2009
Location: Longboat Key, Florida, USA - Map It

A female wild dolphin monitored for 38 years by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program based at Mote Marine Laboratory died May 22, leaving behind two documented generations of offspring to continue her legacy.

Waterfront residents found the 46-year-old dolphin — known as "FB5" by Program scientists — on a sandbar near Longboat Key. Mote staff recovered the dolphin, which had succumbed to illnesses and injuries that plagued her for months.

A necropsy, or animal autopsy, showed that FB5 had lost more than 100 pounds since her health was last assessed in 2001. She had developed non-healing skin lesions and suffered from organ failure, shark bites and a stingray barb in her lung. Examining her made for a bittersweet evening.

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More Marine Mammal News

>>>Pygmy whale was ailing before it beached on Maui [Maui, Hawaii, USA - Map It

]

Seven More Deer Test Positive for CWD
West Virginia MetroNews Network - www.wvmetronews.com
29 May 2009
C Lawrence
Location: Hampshire County, West Virgina, USA - Map It

Photo courtesy of WV MetroNews Network

Seven more deer sampled in Hampshire County test positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. Since it was first discovered in a road-killed deer near Slanesville in 2005, the DNR has been aggressively targeting the dangerous virus. To date, 45 deer taken from the containment zone have tested positive.

"Within the area where we've picked up most of our positives, in other words where we think the disease is most prevalent, we're looking at an infection rate of somewhere around six-percent," said DNR Game Management Supervisor Paul Johansen.

The containment zone is a radius established around the initial discovery. Although there have been a few infected whitetails found outside that radius, most of the concentration has remained fairly close to the center of that area.

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Avian influenza: Mongolia, China, wild birds
ProMed - www.promedmail.org
29 May 2009

. . . Bar-headed geese _Anser indicus_ comprised the bulk of deaths in 2005 and 2006. Results from our telemetry studies of bar-headed geese and ruddy shelduck _Tadorna ferruginea_ marked at Qinghai Lake in 2007 and 2008 show a spring migratory connection between Qinghai Lake (stopover site) and breeding areas in central Mongolia (Arkhangai province). This is the 1st documentation of its kind . . .

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More Avian Influenza News

>>>Migration of Whooper Swans and Outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 Virus in Eastern Asia [includes journal citation]