Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Bird Flu Leaves The Nest -- Adapting To A New Host
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
28 Aug 2009

Current research suggests that viral polymerase may provide a new therapeutic target for host-adapted avian influenza. The related report by Gabriel et al, "Spread of Infection and Lymphocyte Depletion in Mice Depends on Polymerase of Influenza Virus" appears in the September 2009 issue of the American Journal of Pathology.

. . . They found that whereas the avian strain only infected the lungs, the mouse-adapted strain caused suppression of the immune system, which resulted in infection in multiple organs. In addition, while the avian strain caused only mild symptoms in mice, the mouse-adapted strain led to severe illness including pneumonia and infection of the brain, followed by death. The viral polymerase may therefore provide an important target in preventing systemic flu in humans.

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Cited Journal Article

Gabriel et al. 2009. Spread of Infection and Lymphocyte Depletion in Mice Depends on Polymerase of Influenza Virus. American Journal Of Pathology.

Other Influenza News

UN warns over swine flu in birds [domestic turkeys]

Officials Test Local Birds for Bird Flu

Death rate spikes among misting whooping cranes
Google News (source: Associated Press)
26 Aug 2009
MS Fisher

world's only naturally migrating whooping cranes, and the species' best chance for survival, died at about twice their normal rate last year and will likely see an overall drop in their numbers, a worrying sign for the once near-extinct bird that has been making a comeback.

One likely cause for the population decline could be changes in habitat, Stehn said. A drought in Texas severely affected the whooping crane's foods of blue crabs and berries. Corn feeders were set up to supplement the cranes' diets, but only about half of them used the feeders. And wetlands and prairie have been making way for cornfields along parts of the flock's flyway, which runs from northern Canada through Montana and the Dakotas, New Mexico, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Birds are also threatened by disease, including infectious bursal disease, which was found in cranes in Florida in 2002 and again in one bird in the Aransas flock last year. Adult whooping cranes seem to be immune to West Nile virus, but there are concerns the disease could affect chicks.

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Cancer in wildlife, normally rare, can signal toxic dangers
Environmental Health News - www.environmentalhealthnews.org
27 Aug 2009
C Gammon

Thirty years ago, a Canadian marine biologist noticed something mysterious was happening to beluga whales in the St. Lawrence Estuary. Decades of over-hunting had decimated the population, but several years after the government put a stop to the practice, the belugas still hadn’t recovered.

Two decades and hundreds of carcasses later, he had an answer. “They were dying of cancer,” said Daniel Martineau, now a professor of pathology at the University of Montreal. The white whales were victims of intestinal cancers caused by industrial pollutants released into the St. Lawrence River by nearby aluminum smelters.

Now research points to environmental pollutants as the cause of deadly cancers in several wildlife populations around the world. Normally rare in most wildlife, cancers in California sea lions, North Sea flounder and Great Lakes catfish seem to have been triggered or accelerated by environmental contaminants.

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Launch for amphibian 'life raft'
BBC News - news.bbc.co.uk
26 Aug 2009
R Black

Conservationists have launched a new initiative aimed at safeguarding the world's amphibians from extinction. The Amphibian Survival Alliance will bring together existing projects and organisations, improving co-ordination, scientific research and fund-raising.

About a third of amphibian species are threatened with extinctions. A two-day summit held last week in London identified the two main threats as destruction of habitat and the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

"The world's amphibians are facing an uphill battle for survival," said James Collins, co-chair of the Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) co-ordinated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

>>> FULL ARTICLE [include image gallery]

Other Amphibian News

>>> Deadly Fungus Threatens Amphibians

>>> First Gene-encoded Amphibian Toxin Isolated

Virus suspected in fish deaths at Lake Kaweah
Visalia Times-Delta - www.visaliatimesdelta.com
28 Aug 2009
D Castellon
Location: California, USA - Map It

Photo courtesy of R Holman

Nearly the entire population of carp at Lake Kaweah may have been wiped out by an outbreak of a herpes virus, state wildlife officials say.

But catfish, crappie, bass and other fish popular among anglers at the lake don't appear to have been affected, and humans weren't affected either, say California Department of Fish and Game experts.

"It appears as if koi herpes virus killed the carp in the lake, as many as 90 percent or more" of them, said Brian Beal, fish biologist with the state agency. He estimated that equals about 5,000-7,000 dead carp.

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Record year for sea lion deaths
The Daily Journal - www.smdailyjournal.com
28 Aug 2009
B Silverfarb

Sea lions are dying in record numbers from Chile to Oregon and the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County has seen the number of stranded and dead sea lion pups in the Bay Area hit a number not seen since 1998.

. . . “We have already attended to more than 1,300 stranded or dead sea lions,” Van Bonn said. The center’s mission is to rehabilitate the pups and send them back out into the ocean. The center has exceeded capacity for most of the year.

The deaths could be attributed to a warming ocean, or El Niño event, as was the case in 1998, said Dr. Bill Van Bonn of the Marine Mammal Center. “It’s not likely any kind of new virus or disease,” Van Bonn said. The deaths and strandings are more likely due to adult sea lions being forced to search farther out to sea to find food, leaving pups closer to shore, eventually starved and dehydrated.

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