Analysis: U.S. mad cow find: lucky break or triumph of science?

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON, Apr. 25, 2012 (Reuters) — The discovery this week of the fourth U.S. case of mad cow disease was one of two things for food safety experts: a validation of a decade-long focused surveillance regime or a lucky break that highlights the need to revisit previously scrapped efforts for more comprehensive surveillance.

For now, calls for greater monitoring seem likely to go unheard, both because the "atypical" case appeared to be a one-in-a-million genetic mutation that officials said posed no threat to the food supply, and because of tightening budgets.

Funding for cattle health programs in the proposed 2013 budget is set to fall by 20 percent compared to two years earlier.

Discovery of the infected dairy cow at a rendering plant in central California may stoke an intensifying debate over food safety in the United States, already a major topic after the "pink slime" furor this spring, fungicide-tainted orange juice from Brazil and never-ending efforts to control disease in food caused by salmonella and e Coli bacteria.

While major importers from Japan to Canada pledged to maintain beef shipments and U.S. officials stressed that the "atypical" case had occurred in the cow spontaneously and was not in others animals, critics were quick to respond.

Continued:  http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/bre83o1le-us-usa-madcow-testing/

People 'worried' to report dolphin deaths

People are still afraid to report on dolphin deaths due to repercussions from the fishing industry, a University of Otago zoology professor says.

A critically endangered Maui's dolphin was found dead by a member of the public in Taranaki last week.

The dolphin, of which only 54 are believed to be left, was found by a member of the public on Thursday or Friday on a beach near Pungarehu, south of New Plymouth.

It was collected by the Department of Conservation and taken to Massey University for an autopsy.

It's not yet known if the dead dolphin is a Maui or closely related Hector's dolphin. A latest population survey found a couple of Hector's mingling further north than usual with the Maui's dolphin.

Otago professor Liz Slooten said it would be "hard to get information out of the tiny community of Parihaka''.

It would be the second Maui's dolphin found dead in Taranaki this year. Another, a female, was accidentally killed by a fisherman in January.

"It's only because of recent media attention and websites that people are realising how important this is.''

People were still scared of speaking up about dolphin deaths for fear of repercussions from the fishing industry, Slooten said.

A research student of hers saw up to five Hector's dolphins trapped a day in nets while working on a fishing boat. He was hesitant on reporting the incidents.

"His parents live in the area and it would take five minutes for someone to figure out who had reported it.''

While gill net fishing is banned in parts of Manukau and Kaipara harbours, it is not from north of New Plymouth to south Taranaki.

"As a biologist it's really frustrating,'' Slooten said.

"I've done surveys down there and wrote an article in 2005 to say the Maui is going much further south than the protected area.''

Read on:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6825782/People-worried-to-report-dolphin-deaths

Lion Man warned ministers of cat danger

Government ministers and departments were warned a tragedy was "inevitable" at a Northland big cat reserve – shortly before a handler was mauled to death.

A three-day coronial inquiry starts in Whangarei on June 12, more than three years after Dalu Mncube, 26, was killed in an enclosure at Zion Wildlife Gardens by Abu, a white tiger.

At the time, park founder Craig "Lion Man" Busch was in a legal battle for control of Zion after being dismissed by his mother, Patricia, in 2008.

The park has since been renamed the Kingdom of Zion and Busch has been rehired by its new management.

The Sunday Star-Times can reveal Busch sent a series of warnings to officials – including one three weeks before Mncube's death – saying it was a matter of time before "someone gets badly hurt or killed".

The warnings were sent to then Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson and David Carter, then minister for agriculture, biosecurity and forestry, the Department of Labour and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

On May 9, 2009, Busch wrote of staff taking "dangerous shortcuts".

"A cavalier attitude to health and safety prevails," he wrote. "A serious or fatal accident is inevitable if this is allowed to continue."

Continued:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6824655/Lion-Man-warned-ministers-of-cat-danger

Dogs attacked - by kung fu guinea pig

A Slovakian woman couldn't believe her eyes when her pointer dogs were attacked - by a kung fu guinea pig.

Marta Domotorova, of Hradok, says the pint-sized ninja suddenly attacked her Hungarian pointers during a stroll on heathland near her home.

The curious hounds had spotted the guinea pig and trotted over to investigate - but it scared them off with a series of spinning kicks and leaps.

Mrs Domotorova said: "Bona started barking and Meggie wanted to sniff it.

"I guess it got pretty scared although both dogs are harmless and just wanted to play.

"But then they got pretty scared when the guinea pig started its kung fu chops."

Local wildlife experts believe the furious furball is a household pet that's either escaped or been abandoned.

"It's not the first time we've heard of this. These creatures are usually docile family pets but when they feel threatened they will fight for their lives like any animal that thinks it's been cornered," explained one.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Dogs_attacked_-_by_kung_fu_guinea_pig

Thailand’s Shrimp Farms Threaten Rare ‘Fishing Cats’

By DAN HARRIS (@danbharris) and JAKE WHITMAN

Normally, cats avoid water like the plague, but Thailand’s “fishing cats,” with their partially webbed feet and pointed heads evolved for diving, are built for hunting in the mangrove swamps and streams.

But this rare breed’s entire future could depend on the decisions made in, of all places, the frozen food section of the supermarket.

Biologist Namfon Cutter, who has researched these fiercely private animals for eight years, said she has only once seen one in the wild with her own eyes.

“In a way, that kind of makes it even more exciting, because you want to give them some respect,” Cutter said.

Cutter and her team of researchers head out in the jungle to monitor the fishing cats through camera feeds and radio collars. When they find tracks, they set up a camera and put out a trap baited with a piece of chicken. Cutter is now tracking and studying dozens of these fishing cats through camera feeds and radio collars.

Fishing cats only live in South and Southeast Asia and there are only several thousand of them left in the wild. One of the big culprits in their potential extinction is shrimp farms.

Shrimp farmers dig big holes and raise hundreds of thousands of shrimp, which are then sorted, put on ice and shipped out.

The farms threaten fishing cats in two ways, Cutter said. The first is that the cats are losing their natural habitat to metastasizing shrimp farms, and are sometimes driven to kill chickens belonging to local villagers. Then those villagers turn around and kill the cats.

Sometimes the animals Cutter and her team have been tracking for months simply disappear, she said.

Read more:  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/04/thailands-shrimp-farms-threaten-rare-fishing-cats/