TOP STORIES
BBC Earth News - news.bbc.co.uk
03 Aug 2009
M Walker
Photo credit: A Gunderson
Area: United States
Brightly coloured birds can become infected with bacteria that eat their feathers.
That in turn can affect the health of the birds and dull their plumage.
The discovery comes from a study that found that 99% of all Eastern bluebirds surveyed in Virginia, US were infected with feather-degrading bacteria.
Mystery surrounds penguin deaths
Otago Daily News - www.odt.co.nz
03 Aug 2009
R Fox
Area: New Zealand
Despite investigations by Massey University wildlife scientists, mystery still surrounds the cause of the skull deformities in endangered yellow-eyed penguins at Okia Reserve and the deaths of penguins from other Otago Peninsula beaches last summer.
Eight birds with skull deformities were found at the yellow-eyed penguin reserve at Okia during the past breeding season and many from the northern part of Otago Peninsula died in their nests.
The losses were variable across breeding sites; in some, 50% of chicks died.
Will a warmer world make us sicker?Guardian News - www.guardian.co.uk (Source: Conservation Magazine)
03 Aug 2009
R Kwok
. . . It has long been feared that climate change will enable disease to run rampant through animal populations. A warming world could alter the borders of suitable habitats, leading migratory species to new territory and exposing them to diseases they haven't encountered before.
But scientists are only beginning to get their arms around the mechanisms that might allow disease to weaken some populations while others emerge unscathed.
Karen Oberhauser, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota, has been pursuing answers to questions about how climate change might affect the monarch butterfly.
New Ouchless Plague Vaccine, Shipwrecks Wrecking Coral Reefs, White-Nose Syndrome in Bats, and More at the Wildlife Disease Association ConferenceUSGS Newsrom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
03 Aug 2009
Get Your Shots! Eating Ouchless Vaccines Protects Prairie Dogs in the Lab Against Plague: A new oral vaccine against sylvatic plague is showing significant promise in the laboratory as a way to protect prairie dogs and may eventually protect endangered black-footed ferrets who now get the disease by eating infected prairie dogs, according to results by a USGS researcher at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center.
Sylvatic plague is an infectious bacterial disease usually transmitted from animal to animal by fleas.
This exotic disease is usually deadly for black-footed ferrets and their primary prey, prairie dogs, resulting in local extinctions or regional population reductions.
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
Butterflies tracked as environmental barometer
- Mammals Beat Reptiles in Battle of Evolution
- Rodent size linked to human population and climate change
- Snake hunters scour Everglades for Burmese python
- New rules for Navy sonar to protect whales, other animals
- Honeybees warn of risky flowers
- Jellyfish May Help Keep Planet Cool
- Rare snake brought back to heaths
- Wildlife in peril: Government steps in to help elusive jackrabbit
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Browse complete Digest publication library here.
Deer Carcass Decomposition and Potential Scavenger Exposure to Chronic Wasting Disease
Journal of Wildlife Management. 2009; 73(5): 655–662
CS Jennelle et al.
Surveillance for High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus in Wild Birds in the Pacific Flyway of the United States, 2006-2007
Avian Diseases. 2009 Jun; 53 (2): 222-230
RJ Dusek
Susceptibility to Infection and Immune Response in Insular and Continental Populations of Egyptian Vulture: Implications for Conservation
PLoS ONE. 2009; 4(7): e6333 [free full-text available]
L Gangoso et al.
The Roles and Interactions of Symbiont, Host and Environment in Defining Coral Fitness
PLoS ONE. 2009; 4(7): e6364.
JC Mieog et al.
