UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, SEAL - CANADA (02): (NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR)

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Date: 19 Jan 2010
From: Lena Measures



Regarding "Undiagnosed die-off, seal - Canada: (NL) 20110118.0207,"
here is some information to date.

There are dead, apparently premature, harp seal pups and adults
(_Phoca groenlandica_) on shore over a wide geographic area including
the St. Lawrence Estuary but mostly off northern Newfoundland and
Labrador. Confirmed numbers dead are in the low hundreds so far and
involve mostly adult animals. Reports of early pupping began around
Christmas. Strong storm surges in early January 2011 have brought
some carcasses ashore.

Harp seals migrate down from the arctic in late fall to eventually
give birth and breed on the Front (off eastern Newfoundland and
Labrador) and Gulf of St. Lawrence in late winter. The normal period
for harp seal parturition is end of February, early March. It is
natural for some harp seal pups to be born premature even in January.
The harp seal population is estimated at 8 to 9 million animals with
natural mortality estimated at 4 percent.

Mortality of pups in their 1st year of life is estimated at 20 - 30
percent, declining with age. Pups are nursed for about 12 days then
abandoned, after which they fast and moult on the ice as it ice
drifts into the North Atlantic in early spring (April/May). As the
ice melts pups swim and begin to hunt on their own, eventually moving
northwards. After abandoning their pups females mate and adults rest
on the ice to moult and eventually migrate north. Harp seals spend
about 6 months in arctic waters and 6 months off southeastern
Canadian Atlantic waters.

Observed mortalities may be unusual but expected due to poor to
absent ice conditions and the size of the herd. We are examining
carcasses and differentials include environmental change, poaching
and an epizootic. Adults appear in good body condition. Phocine
distemper virus or PDV (morbillivirus) is enzootic in this population
and while epizootics have killed thousands of seals in Europe,
epizootics have not been observed in Canadian waters perhaps due to
herd immunity (83 percent of examined harp seals are seropositive to
PDV). Necropsies and further investigations are in progress in
collaboration with fisheries agents and veterinary pathologists at
provincial and university laboratories including the Canadian
Co-operative Wildlife Health Center.

Ice conditions can be monitored at the Canadian Ice Service website:
http://ice-glaces.ec.gc.ca/prods/WIS57CT/20110117180000_WIS57CT_0005506610.pdf>

--
Communicated by:
Dr. Lena Measures
Marine mammal health
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Maurice Lamontagne Institute
850 route de la mer, Mont-Joli, Qc, Canada G5H 3Z4



[We appreciate Dr. Measures taking time to inform us and look forward
to a follow up report regarding this condition in the seals. - Mod.TG]

[see also:
Undiagnosed die-off, seal - Canada: (NL) 20110118.0207]
.....................tg/ejp/dk

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Miami-Dade "Shelter" Heart-Sticks w/Out Sedation

From: Pamela Banduric 60sgal@live.com
Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:31 PM
SOS!! - HUGE MIAMI DADE VIOLATION - PRESS RELEASE- WITNESS STATEMENT ATTACHED

WHETHER one lives in FL or not, if you are an animal advocate this needs to be read (including the sworn witness statement) in its entirety and then passed on to every animal advocate one knows.
*NOTE That the perpetrator still works for Miami Dade and the person who tried to stop it and is the whistle blower was fired (dismissed) on Tuesday.



From: advocategroups@gmail.com (at gmail.com)
Sent: 1/11/2011 6:14:21 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
MDAS VIOLATION - PRESS RELEASE - WITNESS STATEMENT ATTACHED


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
*Contact: Amy Roman Restucci (561) 860-3783


Miami-Dade Animal Services WhistleblowerOffers Eyewitness Testimony To Inhumane Mass Killing At Shelter

October 22 Incident Provokes Public Outcry

Miami, Fl. January 11. 2011 --- A former employee of Miami-Dade Animal Services has come forward to testify to the killing of dozens of animals by a brutal method known as heart-stick in an incident at the shelter on October 22, 2010. More formally known as intracardial injection or IC, the procedure is widely held to be grossly inhumane and its use is in fact constrained by Miami-Dades own policies. Their published Standard Operating Procedure manual specifies “an intracardiac injection should be done only if an animal is unconscious,with the procedure overall held by the shelter as a method of last resort. Such veterinary and animal protection bodies as the American Veterinary Medical Association and Humane Society of The United States have also issued guidelines for the procedures to use, the AVMA specifying that Intracardiac injection is acceptable only when performed on heavily sedated, anesthetized or comatose animals, owing to the difficulty and unpredictability of performing the injection accurately. Grace Avila, then an Animal Care Specialist at MDAS, alleges that on the evening of October 22, dozens of animals were killed by MDAS Vet Tech David Perez using IC without sedation, causing them to suffer terrifying and agonizing deaths.

These accusations have surfaced at a time when the shelter was already at the center of a firestorm of complaints by local citizens regarding living conditions within the shelter, the neglect and mishandling of animals, a kill-rate significantly higher than the national average and overall mismanagement by MDAS director Dr. Sara Pizano, DVM. In particular, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez’ Facebook page has recently become the target of innumerable postings by outraged citizens of not only Dade County, but animal advocates from around the country and abroad, including such countries as the U.K. and Kenya.
Local grass-roots animal advocate groups are calling for a general assessment of conditions inside the shelter by an outside agency, as well as a thorough investigation into the horrific events of October 22, and removal of shelter administrators Dr. Sara Pizano and Xiomara Mordcovich. Several informal groups of concerned citizens have formed in recent weeks with the intention of gaining wide-spread exposure of numerous documented incidents of neglect and mistreatment of animals in the custody of MDAS. Large scale public demonstrations are currently in the planning stages.
As of this writing David Perez remains in the employ of Miami-Dade Animal Services, and the only disciplinary action known to have been taken against him by the shelter is his demotion to DA, shelter terminology for dead animal removal.

Whistleblower Grace Avila was dismissed by the shelter on Monday, January 11.

# # #
Interviews with Grace Avila available upon request.

19 Doxies Dumped on Calif. Shelter

Click on pic to enlarge
In addition to Lucky and Lucy above,...there are 19 Doxies being surrendered to the Tulare County Animal Control today. Ages range from 5 years to senior citizen. We would like them out ASAP. The less time at the shelter the better. We are located in Visalia, CA between Fresno and Bakersfield.

Please contact Michelle Shanley at the shelter-559-636-3647 after 10:00am or by email:
mshanley@tularehhsa.org


Thank you for any assistance

Mystery Solved: Arkansas Birds Died of Blunt Force Trauma

UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, AVIAN - USA (05): (ARKANSAS), TRAUMA
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A ProMED-mail post

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International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: 6 Jan 2011
Source: JS Online [edited]



The mystery of the deaths of thousands of blackbirds in Arkansas this
month [January 2011] has been solved. They died of blunt-force
trauma, according to the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison.
Samples of the blackbirds -- and other blackbirds from a separate
mass die-off about the same time in Louisiana -- were brought to the
little-known laboratory on Madison's west side for necropsies.

"They died of impact force to their bodies," said Scott Wright, chief
of disease investigations at the center.

He said the birds clearly showed signs of bruises. The Arkansas Game
and Fish Commission said tests for evidence of pesticide poisoning
were negative.

At least 3000 red-winged blackbirds died on New Year's Eve near
Beebe, Arkansas. Fireworks probably sent them flying from their roost sites.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said the agency began receiving
reports of blackbirds falling from the sky about 11:30 p.m. on 31 Dec
2010 in a one-square-mile area of Beebe.

The mass kill spawned speculation that their demise was caused by a
chemical pollutant, a fear heightened by the arrival in Beebe of
workers combing neighborhoods in hazmat suits. As the story spread,
other theories ranged from biblical apocalypse to proof of the
presence of UFOs.

"It's believed that the noise startled them -- they are poor night
fliers -- and they were in close proximity to neighborhoods, and they
flew into homes and cars (and other objects)," Wright said.

A separate incident near Baton Rouge, Louisiana involving about 450
blackbirds is still under investigation by the center, Wright said.

"I think the 2 events are a coincidence," Wright said. Also
unrelated, he said, are the deaths of more than 80 000 freshwater
drum and a few yellow bass, white bass, and sauger in the Arkansas
River reported on 3 Jan 2011.

Wright said large scale deaths of birds and other species are not
uncommon. Storms, for example, wreak havoc on bird populations. Birds
are also vulnerable to chemical pollution and biological poisoning
from natural toxins.

For the blackbird species alone, there have been 16 incidents in
which 1000 or more birds have died in single events over the past 5
years, he said. The lab analyzes 300 to 500 large die-off events each
year. The deaths involve all wildlife. Deaths in 2010 were as varied
as the demise of 4500 bats from a fungal infection known as
white-nose syndrome in Bucks County, PA to the deaths of 150
raccoons, striped skunks, coyotes and red foxes in Los Angeles County.

The lab's website shows 9 separate mortality events since December
2010 alone. Eight of those events involved bird species, and one
involved the gunshot deaths of dozens of Brazilian free-tailed bats
near Pima, AZ. The National Wildlife Health Center also played a key
role in the study of chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin's
white-tailed deer population after an outbreak in February 2002.

"We don't know what we are going to get tomorrow, or the next day,
but it will be something," Wright said.

[Byline: Lee Bergquist]

--
Communicated by:
HealthMap Alerts via
ProMED-mail

[The birds reportedly "fell from the sky." Trauma would certainly be
evident. While the necropsy of the birds rules out any apparent foul
play, it does not identify the reason the birds were flying at night
and flying into objects. - Mod.TG]

[see also:
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA (02): (AR, LA) 20110105.0055
Undiagnosed die-off, avian - USA: (AR), RFI 20110104.0036]
....................................................sb/tg/msp/mpp

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Vice Guide to the Carribean / Donkey Love

Pt. 1; http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=50d_1179015263

Pt. 2; http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=051_1179016330

Pt. 3; http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b5d_1179017318

Bat Die-Off Moves West to Arizona

NY and some of the eastern and south-eastern states have experienced a 90% bat-die off over the last couple of years, and now, apparently the disease has migrated all they way across country skipping all the other states but somehow finally end up in Arizona...how odd for it to spread that way.

UNDIAGNOSED DIE-OFF, BATS - USA: (ARIZONA)
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A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases


Date: 28 Dec 2010
Source: Arizona Daily Star



Bat die-off here a mystery
--------------------------
Almost 70 bats were found dead Monday morning along an east-side
walking path -- a mystery that has Arizona Game and Fish officials
searching for answers. One possibility: unseasonably warm Tucson,
Arizona, temperatures.

"The whole situation is somewhat of a mystery in part because the bats
are Mexican free-tailed and should have been long gone by now," said
Mark Hart, a spokesman for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. "They
should have migrated to Mexico 2 months ago. What they were doing
there was unclear. Temperatures have been a little warmer. They may
have overstayed their visit."

Early Monday [27 Dec 2010] morning, a local resident was walking his
border collie [dog] along the path that runs under a bridge on East
Speedway where the road crosses the Pantano Wash when he discovered
dozens of bat carcasses strewn across the walking path. "I hike and
bike a lot and go under a lot of bridges, and I've never seen anything
like it," the resident said.

Of the bats found on the ground, 7 were alive. All of the dead bats
and 3 live ones were sent to the Arizona Department of Health Services
laboratory in Phoenix for rabies testing. 4 remaining live bats were
sent to a U.S. Geological Survey laboratory, where they will be tested
for white-nose syndrome, a fungal infection 1st documented in upstate
New York in 2006. The syndrome has killed millions of bats in the East
and has spread as far west as Oklahoma. The infection does not affect
humans, Hart said.

Investigators could find no evidence of foul play in the death of the
bats. Game and Fish officials used metal detectors to look for spent
ammunition, but they found no sign that the bats had been shot. It's
unlikely that the bats were sickened by chemical perhaps used in
surfacing or de-icing the bridge, Hart said. And the chances are
equally remote that almost 70 bats would simultaneously die of rabies.

The more likely hypothesis is that the bats died from the cold after
failing to migrate south to Central America and Mexico for the winter.
Hart said bats are still roosting under the bridge, and he has a
warning for recreationists who may find one of the mammals on the
ground:

"Don't handle or come near a bat that appears to be either dead or
injured," he said. "That would hold true of a lot of different species
of wildlife, but especially bats, because they do carry rabies."

About the species
-----------------
Mexican free-tailed bats (_Tadarida brasiliensis_) like the ones found
under the Pantano Wash bridge, are found in the western United States,
south through Mexico, Central America and into northern South America.
They are medium-size bats, weighing between 0.4 and 0.5 ounces, with a
wingspan between 12 and 14 inches. Their fur is reddish to dark brown
or gray in color. They have broad, black, forward-pointing ears and
wrinkled lips. Their tails extend more than a third beyond the tail
membranes; most other bats have tails that are completely enclosed
within the tail membranes. Their wings are long and narrow.

Mexican free-tailed bats prefer to roost in caves but will also
inhabit attics, bridges and abandoned buildings. They choose roosts
near water because it attracts the insects they eat. Females produce a
single baby each summer, and all of the babies roost in a "nursery" of
sorts, in the highest and warmest reaches of the cave or other roost
site.

[Byline: Kimberly Matas ]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail


[Free-tailed bat is so named because it possesses a tail free and
protruding beyond the uropatagium (hind membrane). The Mexican Free
Tail bat is also known (perhaps more correctly) as the Brazilian Free
Tail bat.

Photos may be found at:


Let's hope that some of the bat bodies were sent to a diagnostic
laboratory for a necropsy and perhaps some testing. - Mod.TG]

[The interactive HealthMap/ProMED map for Arizona is available at:
- CopyEd.EJP]

....................sb/tg/ejp/jw
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Honey-Bee Die Off, Colony Collapse, Transmission by Pollen Suspected

VIRUSES, APIS - USA: POSSIBLE POLLEN TRANSMISSION SUSPECTED
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A ProMED-mail post

ProMED-mail is a program of the
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Date: Fri 24 Dec 2010
Source: Science News [edited]



So far, 11 species of wild [insect] pollinators in the United States
have turned up carrying some of the viruses known to menace domestic
honeybees, possibly picked up via flower pollen.

Most of these native pollinators haven't been recorded with honeybee
viruses before, according to Diana Cox-Foster of Penn State University
in University Park. The new analysis raises the specter of diseases
swapping around readily among domestic and wild pollinators,
Cox-Foster and her colleagues report online 22 Dec 2010 in PLoS ONE.
Gone are any hopes that viral diseases in honeybees will stay in
honeybees, she says. "Movement of any managed pollinator may introduce
viruses."

A pattern showed up in the survey that fits that unpleasant scenario.
Researchers tested for 5 viruses in pollinating insects and in their
pollen hauls near apiaries in Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois.
Israeli acute parasitic virus showed up in wild pollinators near
honeybee installations carrying the disease but not near apiaries
without the virus.

In domestic honeybees, such viruses rank as one of the possible
contributors to the still-mysterious malady known as colony collapse
disorder that abruptly wipes out a hive's workforce, Cox-Foster says.

Now she and others are looking at what the viruses do to wild
pollinators. Preliminary results of ongoing lab tests show some
disturbing effects, Cox-Foster says. "Is this part of the reason why
we've seen the decline of native pollinator species in the US?" she
muses.

Surveys show that wild bumblebees, for example, are dwindling in
numbers, and the new study raises further concerns. "We recognize that
those viruses likely pose a major threat to wild bumblebees," says
Sarina Jepsen of the Xerces Society, an invertebrate conservation
group in Portland, Oregon.

One of the most interesting results in the study is the detection of
deformed-wing virus and sacbrood virus in pollen carried by foraging
bees that weren't infected themselves, comments Michelle Flenniken of
the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied bee
viruses but was not involved in the new work.

Healthy foraging insects carrying virus-laden pollen are one of the
pieces of evidence that Cox-Foster and her colleagues use to argue
that pollen by itself can transmit viral infections. "Knowing that
viruses are found in and can be transmitted from pollen is an
important finding," says Flenniken. This raises concerns about
possible virus transmission through the 200 tons of honeybee-collected
pollen used to feed bumblebees in bee-raising operations worldwide,
Cox-Foster says.

[Byline: Susan Milius]

--
Communicated by:
Thomas James Allen


[Interesting connections seem like they are being made. Perhaps this
will lead to treatment or prevention for colony collapse disorder. -
Mod.TG]

[Images of honeybee compared to bumblebee:

- Mod.JW]

[The PLoS paper mentioned above is available at
.
- Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]

[see also:
Colony collapse disorder, apis - USA: possible cause 20101007.3635
Colony collapse disorder, apis - Europe: EU 20100915.3348
2009
----
Colony collapse disorder, apis - USA: cause 20090826.3008
Colony collapse disorder, apis - USA: multiple causes susp 20090731.2687
2008
----
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - China: (GD), RFI 20081119.3654
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - UK: pesticides susp. 20081004.3133
Honeybee die-off - UK 20080818.2574
Colony collapse disorder, apis - Germany: chemical ban 20080613.1868
2007
----
Colony collapse disorder, apis - USA: (FL) 20071026.3490
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - USA (Multistate) (03): agent identified
20070907.2960
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - USA : (Multistate) (02) 20070503.1436
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - USA : (Multistate) (02) 20070503.1435
Undiagnosed die-off, apis - USA (Multistate) 20070208.0497]
........................................tg/mj/jw
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