Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Threat Down Below: Polluted Caves Endanger Water Supplies, Wildlife
Scientific American - www.scientificamerican.com
08 Sep 2009
S Streater
Photo credit: West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

The Bluestone River that straddles the Virginia-West Virginia border has long been a popular trout-fishing spot, as well as a source of drinking water for nearby towns.

So Virginia environmental officials were stunned when routine sampling turned up something disturbing: Carp in the river were loaded with industrial compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Seeking to unravel the mystery, they followed the river all the way up to the entrance of a rural cave in West Virginia.

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Fungus threatens P.E.I. frogs
CBC News - www.cbc.ca
08 Sep 2009
Area: Prince Edward Island, Canada - Map It

A fungus that's potentially deadly for frogs has been found in ponds on P.E.I.

Chytrid is an infection that is causing problems for frog populations around the world. The fungus, which lives in the skin of the frog, is causing 200 species of frogs to decline severely or go extinct.

This summer, a team of researchers swabbed 114 frogs at 18 ponds across the Island. More than half those ponds showed cases of chytrid.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Saving Bees: What We Know Now
Room for Debate - roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com
02 Sep 2009
Photo credit: Phil Hawkins/Bloomberg News

The first alarms about the sudden widespread disappearance of honeybees came in late 2006, and the phenomenon soon had a name: colony collapse disorder.

In the two years that followed, about one-third of bee colonies vanished, while researchers toiled to figure out what was causing the collapse.

A study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences surmises that there may not be a single pathogen involved but a collection of culprits.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Cited Journal Article
>>>Changes in transcript abundance relating to colony collapse disorder in honey bees (Apis mellifera). PNAS. 2009 Sep 01; 106(35): 14790-14795.

West Nile virus detected in dead crow in King County
News Tribune - www.thenewstribune.com
09 Sep 2009
Area: King County, Washington, USA - Map It

A dead crow found in Seattle’s Laurelhurst neighborhood on August 24th is positive for West Nile virus according to a press release from the King County government.

This is the first West Nile positive finding in King County in 2009, and confirms that people are at risk for contracting West Nile virus this year in King County.

“There are still mosquitoes outdoors during the cooler fall months, so protect yourself against mosquito bites,” said Dr. Sharon Hopkins, Public Health veterinarian for Public Health – Seattle and King County.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo courtesy of Guardian News