Wildlife Disease News Digest

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Bees Fight Back Against Colony Collapse Disorder: Some Honey Bees Toss Out Varroa Mites
ScienceDaily - www.sciencedaily.com (Source: USDA/Agricultural Research Service)
05 Oct 2009
Photo credit: Stephen Ausmus

Honey bees are now fighting back aggressively against Varroa mites, thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) efforts to develop bees with a genetic trait that allows them to more easily find the mites and toss them out of the broodnest.

The parasitic Varroa mite attacks the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., by feeding on its hemolymph, which is the combination of blood and fluid inside a bee.

Colonies can be weakened or killed, depending on the severity of the infestation. Most colonies eventually die from varroa infestation if left untreated.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Diseased Sask. deer put Manitoba on alert
CBC News - www.cbc.ca
03 Oct 2009
Area: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Canada - Map It

The discovery of chronic wasting disease in Saskatchewan deer about 100 kilometres from the Manitoba border has led to new testing requirements for hunters from The Pas to Swan River.

Manitoba's Conservation Department wants the head and neck of any harvested deer to be dropped off at a depot so that testing can be done to see whether the brain disease is present.

"We've instituted a regulation where hunters are required to submit samples for testing," Rich Davis, a wildlife biologist with the Conservation Department, told CBC News on Friday.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Testing of Elk, Deer Continues for Chronic Wasting Disease [South Dakota]

High CO2 could starve corals
Science Alert - www.sciencealert.com.au
06 Oct 2009 (Source: ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies)
Photo credit: iStockphoto

As human activity pumps more and more carbon into the atmosphere, a new threat has emerged to the world’s coral reefs – starvation.

Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland have discovered that the symbiotic algae – known as zooxanthellae – which supply 99 per cent of the corals’ food supply may be disrupted by high CO2 levels and increased ocean acidification.

The result could be decreased productivity in corals, increasing their vulnerability to bleaching, diseases and other impacts, say PhD researcher Alicia Crawley, Dr Sophie Dove and colleagues, following investigations carried out at Orpheus Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Related News
>>>Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk

October Science Picks -- Hot News about Cool Science
USGS Newsroom - www.usgs.gov/newsroom
02 Oct 2009

Gender Line Blurred in Fish
Forget the Garlic Necklace! Learn More about Bats and Rabies
Winter Warming Affects Sea Goose Migration
Invading Island Applesnails
Toxic Snow Takes Toll on Tadpoles
Helping Plants and Animals Faced with Arctic Warming

>>>October Science Picks

First Positive Case of West Nile Virus in a Bird Confirmed in Macon County
Decatur Tribune - news.mywebpal.com
03 Oct 2009
Area: Macon County, Illinois, USA - Map It

The Macon County Health Department has received a confirmed report of the first positive case of West Nile Virus in a bird.

There have been three positive mosquito batches found in Macon County this year.

Dianna Heyer, Communicable Disease Coordinator, states, “There have still been no human cases of West Nile Virus reported in Macon County this year.”

>>>FULL ARTICLE

Toxins tied to fish kill may have hitchhiked
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - www.post-gazette.com
04 Oct 2009
D Hopey
Photo credit: Bob Donaldson
Area: Dunkard Creek, Greene County, Pennsylvania, USA - Map It

An invasive toxic algae, blamed for contributing to the massive Dunkard Creek fish kill along the Pennsylvania-West Virginia border, may have hitchhiked to the region aboard equipment used in Marcellus shale drilling.

That kind of transregional travel could put fish and aquatic life in the states' other creeks and watersheds at risk in coming years as thousands of new wells are drilled into the thick and gaseous layer of shale that lies a mile deep under much of Pennsylvania and the northern Appalachians.

It has been more than a month since fish started going belly-up on Dunkard Creek, and officials with federal and state environmental and fisheries agencies have yet to identify what killed the fish or assign blame.

>>>FULL ARTICLE

OTHER WILDLIFE HEALTH RELATED NEWS
Photo credit: Steve Tracy/Flickr