Diseases spread from wildlife pose risk to livestock and humans in Alberta, scientists find

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

by Katie Willis, University of Alberta

Diseases transmitted from wildlife are a common threat to livestock and humans in Alberta, according to new research by University of Alberta biologists.

"One of the biggest risks to the livestock industry is the transmission of disease from wildlife to livestock," said Mark Boyce, an ecologist in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Boyce said the long list of diseases that occur between livestock and wildlife includes anthrax, bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and many species of worms such as tapeworm and roundworm.

"And in addition to infecting one another, many of the diseases that are shared by wildlife and livestock are zoonotic, meaning that they also can infect humans," he noted.

Boyce said the foothills in the southwestern part of the province are home to wild elk as well as cattle on ranchlands—and when the species intermingle, the potential for disease to spread grows.

The researchers used data gathered from GPS-collared elk combined with cattle management information from 16 cattle operations in southern Alberta to identify locations and times where the probability of disease transmission is high.

They found the highest risk occurs in winter months, when livestock and elk are in the same pastures and use the same resources.

Based on their results, the researchers developed guidelines to help producers minimize the risk of infection.

"Livestock management that minimizes the risk of contact with wildlife will reduce the risk of disease transmission," said Boyce. "This includes keeping cattle in pastures near farm buildings during winter and calving season.

"It is also important to keep mineral supplements and hay next to ranch buildings, again to reduce the contact between cattle and elk," he added.

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Emerging infectious disease threatens Darwin’s frog with extinction

Date: September 27, 2017

Source: University of Zurich

Iconic species likely to be wiped-out by amphibian fungus, despite lack of obvious short-term evidence.

The Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma darwinii) is the latest amphibian species to face extinction due to the global chytridiomycosis pandemic, according to an international study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

The study has found that Darwin's frogs are infected with the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), and despite an absence of obvious mortality researchers have noted population declines, leading them to believe that these infected populations are at a serious risk of extinction within 15 years of contracting the disease.

Populations of this unique species, currently known as highly threatened, were previously considered to have remained relatively stable in the face of the disease that has ravaged many amphibian species worldwide, but the frogs may have been infected over a decade ago, with the impacts only recently observed.

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Researchers discover new cattle disease and prevent it from spreading

Date:  September 21, 2017

Source:  University of Copenhagen The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Summary:

Following genetic studies of deformed calves, research is able to uncover a previously unknown disease found among Holstein cattle. The breeding bull from which the mutation and thus the deformation originate has now been put down to prevent the disease from spreading further.

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Spread of ages is key to impact of disease, animal study finds - via Herp Digest

Date: March 24, 2017

Source: University of Edinburgh

How a disease outbreak affects a group of animals depends on the breakdown of ages in the population, research has shown.

The findings could help scientists better understand how events such as disease outbreaks may affect certain groups in a population.

Scientists sought to examine how a spread of ages can influence a population's health, by simulating an outbreak of disease in small marine animals.

With lab experiments and computer modelling, they found that disease spread can vary depending on the age at which individuals are exposed to infection, and the age at which females in the group become mothers.

Experiments in the latest study found that offspring of younger mothers were more at risk from infection. The finding builds upon previous knowledge that younger individuals are more at risk.

Taking these factors into account, computer models showed that when death rates are high, disease can spread faster -- even as populations fall. This contradicts the expectation that disease should spread most easily in dense populations, in which individuals interact more.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh carried out lab experiments with water fleas, examining how four generations of the small crustaceans responded to a common bacterial infection. Their results were used to build a mathematical model of how the organisms might respond in the long term to threats such as incidence of disease.

Their study, published in Ecology Letters, was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

Jess Clark, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Biological Sciences, who led the study, said: "Many societies around the world are experiencing aging populations, and investigating the impact of this might lend valuable insight into how such populations might respond to an outbreak of disease."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Edinburgh. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

/story_source

Journal Reference:

1 Jessica Clark, Jennie S. Garbutt, Luke McNally, Tom J. Little. Disease spread in age structured populations with maternal age effects. Ecology Letters, 2017; 20 (4): 445 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12745

Last hope for great apes is vaccination against the rapid onslaught of disease

Scientists warn that wild ape populations, already devastated by poachers and habitat loss, now face a new threat from Ebola and other viruses

Robin McKie

Sunday 10 April 201600.05 BST

Vaccine campaigns to protect wild chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans could be the only hope of preventing the planet’s remaining great apes from suffering catastrophic population crashes, scientists have warned.

They say that recent surveys of several populations of great apes have revealed devastating drops in numbers and that protective steps must now be taken as a matter of urgency.

One report, published last week, revealed that numbers of Grauer’s gorilla, the largest of all the great apes, had plunged from 17,000 to fewer than 4,000 over the past 20 years. Other reports have said that devastating forest fires in Indonesia, in addition to the spread of palm oil plantations, have wiped out thousands of square miles of rainforest, the home of the orang-utan. Again, species numbers have plummeted.

“Several factors are involved in the terrible losses that are occurring in our fellow great apes,” said Peter Walsh, a primate ecologist at Cambridge. “However, diseases – some spread by humans – are the ones that we can do most about in the short term.”

Three main human-induced impacts are blamed for the devastation of great ape numbers in recent years:

■ Habitat loss. Swaths of jungle in Asia have been turned to palm oil plantations and have brought the orang-utan to the edge of extinction in many areas. Now oil companies are eyeing up central Africa for similar treatment;

■ Bushmeat. Eating chimpanzee and gorilla meat has become a widespread source of protein in several countries in central Africa and has depleted numbers further;

■ Disease. Epidemics such as Ebola fever have affected humans, but also chimps and gorillas. The latter suffered a death toll of tens of thousands during the last outbreak.

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Bee virus spread is humanmade, driven by European honeybee populations

Date: February 4, 2016

Source: University of Exeter

The spread of a disease that is decimating global bee populations is humanmade, and driven by European honeybee populations, new research has concluded.

A study led by the University of Exeter and UC Berkeley and published in the journal Science found that the European honeybee Apis mellifera is overwhelmingly the source of cases of the Deformed Wing Virus infecting hives worldwide. The finding suggests that the pandemic is humanmade rather than naturally occurring, with human trade and transportation of bees for crop pollination driving the spread.

Although separately they are not major threats to bee populations, when the Varroa mite carries the disease, the combination is deadly, and has wiped out millions of honeybees over recent decades. Varroa feed on bee larvae while the Deformed Wing Virus kills off bees, a devastating double blow to colonies. The situation is adding to fears over the future of global bee populations, with major implications for biodiversity, agricultural biosecurity, global economies, and human health.

The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship. It involved collaborators from the universities of Sheffield, Cambridge, Salford and California, as well as ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

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Threatened mountain goat gets help from the skies

By Sylvia Smith

BBC News

25 December 2015 

From the sectionScience & Environment

Populations of Spanish ibex are being hit by a deadly disease. Now scientists are using drones and thermal cameras in an effort to conserve the mountain goat.

A herd of wild mountain goats leap and scatter at a sudden sound overhead. The scrubby, uneven terrain of the upper reaches of the Sierra de las Nieves national park is a protected area and the goats' natural habitat.

They have no trouble hiding themselves in among the rocks and clusters of bushes which may help when they are being hunted illegally.

But is it this ability to go to ground that has caused problems for scientists intent on managing the shrinking populations of Spanish ibex.mage copyrightThinkstockImage captionBut now a joint project of the University of Cordoba and the Junta de Andalucia is bringing together park rangers, vets and drone experts to find ways of dealing with outbreaks of deadly sarcoptic mange which has been devastating ibex populations in the Iberian peninsula.

The Spanish mountain goat is a species of ibex with four subspecies, of which two are now extinct and two which can still be found on the Iberian Peninsula in small pockets.

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Managed bees spread and intensify diseases in wild bees

Research shows wild bees are harmed even when managed bees are disease-free

Date:  November 5, 2015

Source:  University of California - Riverside

For various reasons, wild pollinators are in decline across many parts of the world. To combat this, managed honey bees and bumblebees are frequently shipped in to provide valuable pollination services to crops. But does this practice pose any risk to the wild bees?

An entomologist at the University of California, Riverside has examined the evidence by analyzing the large body of research done in this area to come to the conclusion that managed bees are spreading diseases to wild bees.

"Even in cases when the managed bees do not have a disease, they still stress local wild bees, making them more susceptible to disease," said Peter Graystock, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Entomology and the lead author of a paper published online last week in the International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife.

The work is a review of a vast amount of research in this area, incorporating studies that utilize advanced disease screening. It lists the problems managed bees cause and suggests avenues to limit further damage.

"The use of managed honeybees and bumblebees is linked with several cases of increased disease and population declines in wild bees," Graystock said. "This is shown in various countries around the world and is not always because the managed bees are carrying a disease. Loss of wild pollinators will ultimately either reduce crop yields or increase the reliance on and cost of shipping in more managed bees. This increased cost will cascade down to consumers, raising the price of food we put on our tables."

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Fishermen discards could increase prevalence of turtle disease in Turks and Caicos

Fishermen in the Turks and Caicos Islands could be increasing the local prevalence of a disease that is affecting turtle populations worldwide, by selectively harvesting healthy creatures and throwing back infected animals

Date: August 27, 2015

Source: University of Exeter

Summary: The team surveyed cases of green turtle fibropapillomatosis disease, which creates unsightly pink tumors on the turtles' flesh. Although benign, they can impede turtles' vision and movement, as well as feeding, swimming and organ function. The virus is not thought to be dangerous to humans. Over two years, around 13 percent of green turtles found in waters had the disease. In contrast, fishermen did not land any diseased turtles during this period, even though they were fishing in areas where diseased animals were prevalent.

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Newly identified tadpole disease found across the globe

Highly infectious tadpole disease found in diverse range of frog populations across the world

Date: August 10, 2015

Source: University of Exeter

Summary: Scientists have found that a newly identified and highly infectious tadpole disease is found in a diverse range of frog populations across the world. The discovery sheds new light on some of the threats facing fragile frog populations, which are in decline worldwide.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, led by the University of Exeter and the Natural History Museum, describes the molecular methods used to test frog tadpoles for a newly identified infectious agent.

Tadpoles from six countries across three continents were tested for 'protists' -- single celled microbes with complex cells which store their DNA in a nucleus, like human cells. The previously unidentified parasite was present in tadpole livers in both tropical and temperate sites, and across all continents tested. The infectious agent was identified as a distant relative of Perkinsea sp., a marine parasites found in animals and algae.

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Caribbean spiny lobsters create safe havens to avoid disease

Date: July 1, 2015

Source: University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

Summary: Caribbean spiny lobsters create "behavioral immunity" that prevents them from contracting a deadly disease, a key finding for the $50 million a year Florida business, according to a new study.

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Rope-chewing technique an easy way to screen monkeys for disease

Date:July 6, 2015

Source:University of California - Davis

A noninvasive technique involving strawberry jam and a piece of rope is helping surveillance for diseases that might jump from monkeys to humans according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The UC Davis One Health Institute's PREDICT Project has been performing global disease surveillance for more than five years, but the logistics of screening primates for zoonotic pathogens -- diseases that can be passed from animals to humans -- have often presented a challenge. That is because invasive sampling techniques, such as collecting blood or using oral swabs, require anesthesia in the field.

UC Davis graduate student researcher Tierra Smiley Evans and the PREDICT team have now developed a noninvasive method to simplify the sampling of primates in challenging, remote locations. The method is described in a study published in June in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

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Goldfish helping to kill off frogs by spreading 'devastating disease', scientists warn

Goldfish and other non-native fish should not be put into garden ponds because they help spread a “devastating disease” that is killing off thousands of frogs every year, scientists have said.

The researchers, who published a paper in the PLoS One journal, also said the use of common garden chemicals was weakening frogs’ immune systems which put them at greater risk of deadly ranavirosis. Amphibians are also among the animals most at risk from climate change.

Alexandra North, of Exeter University and lead author of the study, which looked at frog deaths from 1992 to 2000, told The Daily Telegraph: “It is important to stop stocking ponds with non-native species like goldfish. Our results show that we can all help limit the impact of this devastating disease.

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Amphibians, already threatened, face increased susceptibility to disease from environmental stress

Date:

March 9, 2015

Source:

Council on Undergraduate Research, Duquesne University

Summary:

New research supports the hypothesis that environmental stressors increase salamanders’ susceptibility to infection, based on chronic exposure to corticosterone, a stress hormone.

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Disease-carrying fleas abound on New York City's rats

Date:

March 2, 2015

Source:

Cornell University

Summary:

In the first study of its kind since the 1920s, rats in New York City were found to carry a flea species capable of transmitting plague pathogens. Among them: 500-plus Oriental rat fleas, notorious for their role in transmitting the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death.

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NYC Rats Are Reservoirs for Disease

By Megan Gannon, News Editor | October 14, 2014 06:56pm ET

The rats that dart between trashcans and crawl across subway tracks in New York may harbor some alarming diseases, according to a new study.

Rats in Manhattan are reservoirs for a suite of germs, including E. coli and Salmonella, the research found. Some of the critters were even carrying Seoul hantavirus, which can cause Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever and kidney failure in humans and has never before been documented in New York.

"Rats are sentinels for human disease," W. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University's Center for Infection and Immunity and senior author of the study, said in a statement. "They're all over the city; uptown, downtown, underground. Everywhere they go, they collect microbes and amplify them. And because these animals live close to people, there is ample opportunity for exchange."

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Angry Japan farmers bring Fukushima cow to Tokyo

Angry farmers from Fukushima brought a large cow to the centre of Tokyo Friday to demand Japan's government investigate a disease they say cattle have developed since the nuclear disaster three years ago.

Operators of non-profit "Kibo no Bokujo", or "Farm of Hope", delivered a full-size black cow to the front of the agriculture ministry to demand an investigation into why it and many other animals have developed white dots on their skin since reactors went into meltdown after the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.

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Amphibian Diseases Flow Through Animal Trade - via Herp Digest

by Sarah Zielinsky, 3/13/1, Science News

Millions of amphibians are sold in Hong Kong and exported, including to the United States. Diseased animals may be spreading diseases such as the chytrid fungus, say scientists.

Disease isn’t the biggest killer of amphibians — that would be habitat loss — but it can be the quickest. And the chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis) in particular has been a huge worry for scientists and anyone else who cares about the world’s frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. The disease spreads through water and skin contact (mating, for instance, can be dangerous), infecting the skin of the animal and disrupting its ability to absorb water. Amphibians rely on that water absorption to control electrolyte levels; when that’s disrupted, it usually leads to death. Some 3,900 species are thought to be in trouble because of the disease, and 165 have probably gone extinct.

If that weren’t enough, ranaviruses have also been associated with dieoffs of many amphibian species. These viruses spread through a variety of routes, including cannibalism. With symptoms ranging from lethargy to organ failure, detecting the disease is rarely straightforward.

Just how these diseases move around the world isn’t always certain, but the global trade in amphibians is probably contributing.

The amphibian trade is far bigger than the movement of a few frogs and toads through pet stores. More than 100 million amphibians are harvested from the wild each year, and millions more are raised to be sold for meat, pets, scientific research and even for religious ceremonies. That’s a lot of frogs moving around the world.

Hong Kong is a global hub for this trade; the United States, for example, imported 3.6 million live amphibians from Hong Kong from 2006 through 2010. But many of those animals may carry disease, Jonathan Kolby of James Cook University in Australia and colleagues report March 5 in PLOS ONE.

The researchers randomly sampled amphibian shipments from Hong Kong when they arrived in the United States, swabbing amphibians in the shipments and taking samples of the water in which they arrived and testing the swabs and water for DNA of the chytrid fungus and ranavirus. They found the chytrid fungus in 11.7 percent of amphibians tested and five of eight water samples examined (most amphibians are shipped in water). And they discovered ranavirus in 56.8 percent of animals and three out of four shipments.

Shippers may not be deliberately trading in diseased animals. Often when amphibians are infected with the chytrid fungus or ranavirus, they don’t show any symptoms, such as lesions, which can make identifying sick animals difficult. In the study, only 21.3 percent of the animals that tested positive for chytrid or ranavirus arrived dead or had visible lesions.

When the animals arrive in the United States, they can spread the pathogens both through the water they arrived in and the accidental or deliberate release of the amphibians into the wild. The traditional Buddhist practice of releasing animals as a symbol of piety, for example, is thought to be contributing to the spread of the chytrid disease.

And the sanitation practices of the traders probably aren’t helping matters. The World Organization for Animal Health suggests that any water, containers or anything else that comes in contact with amphibians be cleaned and disinfected before disposal. But those recommendations aren’t enforced in Hong Kong. That puts local wildlife at risk, say Kolby and colleagues. If a trader just dumps out a tank of frog water, he might be letting lose a dangerous fungus or virus, which can persist for weeks and potentially infect native amphibians.

With these pathogens continuing to spread, it would appear that the wildlife trade needs some attention.

Amphibian owners can also do their part by quarantining new animals, practicing good hygiene and keeping their animals from escaping to the wild and potentially spreading disease.

Bumblebees infected with honeybee diseases

By Rebecca Morelle

Science reporter, BBC World Service

The beleaguered bumblebee faces a new threat, scientists say.

Researchers have found that two diseases harboured by honeybees are spilling over into wild bumblebees.

Insects infected with deformed wing virus and a fungal parasite calledNosema ceranae were found across England, Scotland and Wales.

Writing in the journal Nature, the team says that beekeepers should keep their honeybees as free from disease as possible to stop the spread.

"These pathogens are capable of infecting adult bumblebees and they seem to have quite significant impacts," said Professor Mark Brown from Royal Holloway, University of London.

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Debilitating effects of disease on toy dog breeds uncovered

Date:

February 12, 2014

Source:

University of Surrey

Summary:

A new study has identified the specific effect Chiari malformation has on the shape of a dog’s skull and brain. This condition has become prevalent as a result of selective breeding and affects many toy dog breeds which have been bred to look more doll-like, including Griffon Bruxellois, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Chihuahuas and their crosses.

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