TOP STORIES
Yahoo News - news.yahoo.com (Source: AFP)
02 Sep 2009
Photo credit: AFP/NASA File
Australia's Great Barrier Reef is in serious jeopardy as global warming and chemical runoff threaten to kill marine species and cause serious outbreaks of disease, a report warned Wednesday.
The World Heritage-listed reef was already showing the impacts of climate change, with two episodes of mass coral bleaching in the past 10 years, the Marine Park Authority's inaugural reef outlook report said.
"While populations of almost all marine species are intact and there are no records of extinctions, some ecologically important species, such as dugongs, marine turtles, seabirds, black teatfish and some sharks, have declined significantly," the authority wrote.
Cross-species diseases proliferating in the wild
The Australian - www.theaustralian.news.com.au
02 Sep 2009
G Healy
The decision to deny the biosecurity centre the $42million it sought for another six years comes as international research warns of a "brewing storm" of emerging infectious diseases leaping across species barriers from wildlife to livestock to humans.
About 60 per cent of the 1461 diseases recognised in humans were due to multi-host pathogens that cross species lines, the Zoological Society of London's Kate E. Jones wrote in a letter to the journal Nature last year.
Dr Jones, lead author of the group letter, said emerging infectious diseases were dominated by "zoonotic" diseases emanating from animals, with the majority of these originating from wildlife. More of these diseases were expected.
September Science Picks -- Hot News about Cool ScienceUSGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
02 Sep 2009
- Mercury Contamination in Fish Nationwide
- Sea Otter Health, Pollution and Revealing Genes
- Tiny Satellite Technology Tracks Rare Kittlitz's Murrelet
- Climate Change May Leave Early Birds Without the Worm
- Investigating Mysterious Bat Deaths
- Crayfish Don't Rock and Roll to Heavy Metal!
- Hunting for Plant and Animal Information Just Got Easier
Wildlife Health Bulletin 2009-02
Wildlife Disease Updates: White-Nose Syndrome, Avian Influenza Surveillance, Bat Rabies
and other NWHC Updates
USGS National Wildlife Health Center - www.nwhc.usgs.gov
31 Aug 2009
. . . White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) in Bats: WNS was first documented among dead and hibernating bats found in caves near Albany, New York, by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation beginning in February 2007. USGS has issued a new fact sheet that provides an update on WNS that includes our current understanding of the syndrome, new research projects as well as information on the expanding geographic range of this devastating disease. http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/fact_sheets/pdfs/2009- 3058_investigating_wns.pdf
FULL BULLETIN [pdf]
OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Bryce Richter/University of Wisconsin-Madison
Music Written For Monkeys Strikes A Chord
- H5N1/H1N1 virus co-infection - Egypt: ex S.Arabia, susp, RFI
- New Restrictions on Movement of Deer Carcasses from CWD Zone
- Vast shift in bird species expected from warming
- Wildfires across the globe: impact on wildlife species as their world burns
- Dead or perhaps stranded killer whale calf sought [Oregon]
- Rats Devastating Native Hawaiian Snails
- Carp kill may benefit other species [Arizona]
- Koi Herpes Virus may cost fishing industry £1.87bn [UK]
WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED PUBLICATIONS
Browse complete Digest publication library here
Helminth infestation in birds of prey (Accipitriformes and Falconiformes) in Southern Italy
Vet J. 2009 Aug 25. [Epub ahead of print]
M Santoro et al.
Surveillance for transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in scavengers of white-tailed deer carcasses in the chronic wasting disease area of Wisconsin
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2009;72(17):1018-24
CS Jennelle et al.
Polymorphisms at the PRNP gene influence susceptibility to chronic wasting disease in two species of deer (Odocoileus Spp.) in western Canada
J Toxicol Environ Health A. 2009;72(17):1025-9
GA Wilson et al.
Evaluation of an epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies to influenza A virus in domestic and wild avian and mammalian species
J Virol Methods. 2009 Oct;161(1):141-6. Epub 2009 Jun 11
HJ Sullivan et al.
Chemical Contamination of Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) Eggs in Peninsular Malaysia: Implications for Conservation and Public Health
Environmental Health Perspectives. 2009 Sep; 117(9):1397–1401
JP van de Merwe et al.
US Geological Survey GeoHealth Newsletter - Summer 2009
Volume 1, Number 1
