Wildlife Disease News Digest

TOP STORIES

Study Spells Out Spread of Brain Illness in Animals
New York Time - www.nytimes.com
09 Sep 2009
S Blakeslee

Researchers are reporting that they have solved a longstanding mystery about the rapid spread of a fatal brain infection in deer, elk and moose in the Midwest and West.

The infectious agent, which leads to chronic wasting disease, is spread in the feces of infected animals long before they become ill, according to a study published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. The agent is retained in the soil, where it, along with plants, is eaten by other animals, which then become infected.

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Cited Journal Article

G Tamguney et al. Asymptomatic deer excrete infectious prions in faeces. Nature. 2009;

Bat Man vs. White Nose
BU Today - www.bu.edu/today
10 Sep 2009
C Berdik and EA Brown

On a sticky August evening, the woodsy suburbs of Boston fading into darkness, gray clouds threaten rain. As the cicada and mosquito buzz grows louder, attention focuses on a dark, open window of an old barn; it’s a bat stakeout.

A camera is mounted on the barn wall, paired with an infrared light source and wired into a computer. Another video camera sits on a tripod. All this is under the watchful eyes of Thomas Kunz, a College of Arts & Sciences biology professor, director of Boston University’s Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, and one of the world’s top bat experts. He’s studied these misunderstood mammals for more than four decades, around the country and world, trying to counter their horror-movie image by extolling their critical roles in pollination, controlling insect pests, and sustaining ecosystems.

But in the past couple of years, a mysterious bat-killing disease has spread across the eastern United States, threatening entire species with extinction. The disease, known as white nose syndrome, has transformed Kunz the scientist into Kunz the crisis manager, convening emergency meetings and testifying before Congress to warn of ecological and economic disaster if the bats can’t be saved.

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Increase in foxes, and mange, seen in area
Towson News - www.explorebaltimorecounty.com
09 Sep 2009
L Ingraham
Location: Towson, Maryland, USA - Map It

Photo courtesy of Towson Times

. . . Indeed, DNR does not look kindly at interfering with adult wildlife.

Mange is an indication that the population of a species is too high, according to the Robert Colona, the DNR's wildlife biologist in charge of furbearing animals such as beavers, muskrats, coyotes and foxes.

"There is no practical way to treat the disease in the wild," he said. "If you put food out you are going to concentrate the animals and just increase the transmission of the disease from one to another.

"Even if you are successful with individual animals, you would just prolong the outbreak." In fact, according to the law, treating the animals "can be technically illegal," according to Mary Goldie, who's the DNR's wild life permits coordinator.

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New malaria 'poses human threat'
BCC News - news.bbc.com
09 Sep 2009
Location: Malaysia - Map It

An emerging new form of malaria poses a deadly threat to humans, research has shown. It had been thought the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi infected only monkeys.

But it has recently been found to be widespread in humans in Malaysia, and the latest study confirms that it can kill if not treated quickly.

. . .Dr Kevin Baird, a malaria expert at the University of Oxford, said the study discredited the long-standing theory that malaria does not cross from species to species.

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Cited Journal Article

Daneshvar et al. Clinical and Laboratory Features of Human Plasmodium knowlesi . Infection Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009;49(6):852–860 C

Global Warming Causes Outbreak Of Rare Algae Associated With Corals, Study Finds
Science Daily - www.sciencedaily.com
09 Sep 2009

A rare opportunity has allowed a team of biologists to evaluate corals and the essential, photosynthetic algae that live inside their cells before, during, and after a period in 2005 when global warming caused sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean Ocean to rise.

The team, led by Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Todd LaJeunesse, found that a rare species of algae that is tolerant of stressful environmental conditions proliferated in corals as the more-sensitive algae were being expelled from corals. The results will be published in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on 9 September 2009.

According to LaJeunesse, certain species of algae have evolved over millions of years to live in symbiotic relationships with certain species of corals. The photosynthetic algae provide the corals with nutrients and energy, while the corals provide the algae with nutrients and a place to live. "There is a fine balance between giving and taking in these symbiotic relationships," said LaJeunesse. "If Symbiodinium trenchi takes from the corals more than it gives back, then over time we will see the health of the corals diminish."

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Cited Journal Article

TC LaJeunesse. Outbreak and persistence of opportunistic symbiotic dinoflagellates during the 2005 Caribbean mass coral ‘bleaching’ event. Proceedings of The Royal Society B. 2009; Epub ahead of print.

Magpie is Spokane County’s first West Nile virus detection
Washington State Dept of Health - www.doh.wa.gov
09 Sep 2009
Location: Spokane, Washington, USA - Map It

Spokane County has its first-ever confirmed detection of West Nile virus, a magpie collected Sept. 2 in the West Plains area west of Spokane.

The mosquito-borne virus has been present in Washington since early this decade, but until now it hadn’t been found in Spokane County. The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Washington State University, Pullman, notified the Washington State Department of Health’s Zoonotic Disease Program that the bird was infected with the virus.

. . . Most of the state’s West Nile detections this year have been east of the Cascade Mountains. Also this week, a Franklin County horse was found to have the virus, an adult quarter horse gelding that was euthanized. It’s that county’s first horse to test positive, although birds and mosquito pools from Franklin County have tested positive previously

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More West Nile Virus News

West Nile virus Positive Dead Bird Confirmed in North Hills [California, USA - Map It

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