Gastrointestinal Diseases from Animals

By Catherine Cluett Pactol Agriculture, health and wildlife officials visited Molokai two weeks ago to educate residents and answer questions about the ongoing bovine tuberculosis (bTB) outbreak on Molokai. Together, they discussed the impacts of the disease, what has been done and what's ahead regarding control, legislation and community action.  The source of the 2021 outbreak that has swept through Molokai populations of cattle and pigs is still under investigation but genomic testing shows that all of the infected herds are related to a Molokai strain tracing back to feral pigs on the island's east end.  Dr. Isaac Maeda, Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture state veterinarian, said so far, six herds of cattle and pigs have tested positive in the recent outbreak.  Testing and/or depopulation has been completed for most herds in west and central Molokai already, with only a few animals in central Molokai and a couple of herds on the east end still remaining ...

Continuing the Biden-Harris Administration's efforts to increase recreational access on public lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced new proposed hunting and fishing opportunities for game species at 19 national wildlife refuges on approximately 54,000 acres nationwide. "This proposed rule highlights the Administration's commitment to building on and increasing access for hunters and anglers on lands and waters in the National Wildlife Refuge System," said Service Director Martha Williams. "Responsible hunting and fishing help to promote healthy wildlife habitats while boosting local economies. These additional opportunities will provide all Americans more ways to connect with nature." The proposed rule includes 110 distinct opportunities for hunting or sport fishing (an opportunity is one species on one field station). Increasing access to public lands and waters is a central component of the Biden-Harris Administration's app...

Growing up on farms in northwest Missouri, Terry and Susan Ecker have long had an affinity for agriculture and Northwest Missouri State University's support of the industry through its programming and focus on preparing graduates for success in the field. Those connections inspired them to further support Northwest and its future ag programming by contributing to the University's Agricultural Learning Center (ALC). The Eckers are members of the University's Homesteaders society of alumni and friends who have provided leading support with gifts of $25,000 or greater toward the ALC. "Growing up, I've been very familiar with Northwest and always thought it was a good school," Terry said, acknowledging he attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture, because he wanted an experience further from home. "Since I came back to the farm, I've tried to stay involved with what was going on with the ag depa...

Nearly seven in 10 adults in the US are under-informed about endangered animals, a new survey reveals. A poll of 2,000 Americans found that 68% of them are not "very informed" about which species are thriving or which ones are on the brink of extinction, reported South West News Service on Monday. In fact, nearly one-third of adults (30%) admitted that the issue of animal extinction isn't even "on their radar." More than eight in 10 respondents were not aware that sea turtles (81%) and the Sumatran rhino (81%) are critically endangered. Even after the late Koko, a Western lowland gorilla who famously learned American Sign Language, and her teacher, animal psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson, shone a spotlight on these highly intelligent apes, most of those polled (83%) had no idea that Koko's kind is near extinction. The adorable red panda was revealed to be one of the endangered spec...

Below is an excerpt from an email we received from the mobile ger (yurt) in the Tost Mountains. "Just before dawn, I glanced at the thermometer as I opened the ger door. -5 degrees C. I could see my breath as I hiked up the mountain in the frosty air. When I reached the spot where we listen for signals, I unfolded the antenna and flipped on the receiver. It immediately sent out a fast pulse – indicating we caught something! Adrenaline rushing, I quickly scanned the other sites, making sure we didn't have other cats before hurrying down to wake Gustaf. We jumped on the ATVs and headed to the site. And then . . . there she was, the snow leopard known as F12. One of the two snow leopards we were most hoping to collar! She was very calm and just laid down, allowing us to dart her easily. F12 is seven years old, larger than the average female, weighing in at 40 kg! She's had two litters – her first in 2019. Her one-year-old cub from her second litter is traveling with h...

Police in Germany saved 72 puppies after they pulled over a van transporting them in appalling conditions. Horrified officers in Waidhaus, Bavaria, southern Germany, found dozens of pups crammed into tiny cages inside the van. Many were dying from dehydration after being left without water on what was due to be a 1,900-mile journey from Slovakia to Portugal. Heartbreaking images show how the parasite-infested pooches, believed to have come from an illegal puppy farm, suffered on the cruel journey. Police in Germany saved 72 puppies after they pulled over a van transporting them in appalling conditions. Landesverband Bayern, Deutscher Tierschutzbund LV Bayern e.V./Zenger Suspicious border police stopped the vehicle on June 26 as it tried to enter Germany from the Czech Republic. The German Animal Welfare Association found that the young dogs were not vaccinated against rabies despite forged documents saying they were. Many of the puppies were dying from dehydration after being l...

Our planet is made up of several species, each uniquely contributing to the natural processes of our planet's ecosystems. Although it's easy to ignore the place of wildlife in our world due to how distant some animals seem, there's no denying the roles wildlife plays in the grand scheme. The complex web of life requires humans, plants, and animals. And when this system is altered as a result of extinction, life on Earth is affected.  Many of us automatically consider how global warming and climate change impact human life. However, we need to examine how the changing climate system affects animals. And we also need to consider the impact of human actions like overhunting, pollution, deforestation, and commercial fishing on animal populations. Although many animals are finding ways to adapt to changes like habitat loss, not all of them have been able to find their way through.  From maintaining the food web to helping fight the climate cris...

Groups object to MSC certification of lobster fishery with risk of entangling critically endangered right whales Conservation groups acted today to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale by formally objecting to a determination that the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery should be recertified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) sustainability standard. MSC certification is widely recognized in grocery stores with a "blue fish tick" ecolabel. The Gulf of Maine lobster fishery had its MSC certificate temporarily suspended in 2020 after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government had violated the Endangered Species Act in authorizing the fishery. The certification was reinstated in 2021 after the development of new management measures, even though the fishery still posed a direct threat to right whales.  "The MSC label certifies to consumers that a fishery is complying with applicable laws ...

The iconic Red List of Threatened Species, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), identifies species at risk of extinction. A study in PLOS Biology publishing May 26 by Gabriel Henrique de Oliveira Caetano at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and colleagues present a novel machine learning tool for assessing extinction risk, and then use this tool to show that reptile species which are unlisted due to lack of assessment or data are more likely to be threatened than assessed species. The IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species is the most comprehensive assessment of the extinction risk of species and informs conservation policy and practices globally. However, the process for categorizing species is laborious and subject to bias, depending heavily on manual curation by human experts; many animal species have therefore not been evaluated, or lack sufficient data, creating gaps in protective measures. To assess 4,369 reptile species that ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Help save endangered Hawksbill turtles    INQUIRER.net

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Infectious disease specialist Nesli Basgoz woke up before dawn one morning last month with a patient on her mind. She had admitted the young, previously healthy man to her Massachusetts General Hospital unit five days earlier, with fever, sweats, swollen glands and a rash. His lack of improvement worried her. Searching for the cause of his suffering, Basgoz and her colleagues had tested and retested him for every obvious infectious disease and even autoimmune conditions. She'd gone through what she describes to her Harvard Medical School students as the Three L's: what's the most likely possibility, what's the most lethal one and what's left? Infectious disease care has always involved solving such medical mysteries. ...