“Another pneumonia outbreak has killed bighorn sheep in the Skalkaho area, and a veterinarian thinks smoke from wildfires may be to blame,” says an article in the Montana newspaper the Ravalli Republic. “If it spreads, the outbreak would be the 7th major die-off of bighorn sheep in western Montana since 2009.”
Read the rest of the story in the Ravalli Republic here.
Photo: A healthy bighorn sheep in Montana. Ryan Hagerty photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.
“Another pneumonia outbreak has killed bighorn sheep in the Skalkaho area, and a veterinarian thinks smoke from wildfires may be to blame,” says an article in the Montana newspaper the Ravalli Republic. “If it spreads, the outbreak would be the 7th major die-off of bighorn sheep in western Montana since 2009.”
Read the rest of the story in the Ravalli Republic here.
Photo: A healthy bighorn sheep in Montana. Ryan Hagerty photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.
It is the season of biting midges, and therefore the season for epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer.
In Kansas, there have been several reports of dead or dieing deer. Two of those cases have been confirmed as epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), or EH, as this article in InfoZine that reported the outbreak calls it. Read the story here.
EHD is cited as the likely source of dead and dieing deer in Montana, in this article from the Liberty County Times.
Read the ProMed entries on both these events for background, wise commentary and corrections to the articles. The comments are at the bottom of the page in [brackets]. Read it here.
There is a possible outbreak in North Dakota. It is still being investigated. Read the story in the Bismark Tribune.
And finally, two weeks ago New Jersey announced a possible outbreak of EHD. We posted that as an addition to that week’s wildlife disease update, but in case you missed it, here’s the press release.
Late addition: On Sept. 7, 2011, New York State has announced that the death of 100 deer in Rockland County two weeks ago was caused by EHD. Read the press release here.
Photo: A healthy deer. Photo credit: Steve Hillebrand, courtesy US Fish and Wildlife
Dozens of white-tailed deer in Montana have died of a mysterious ailment which is suspected to be epizootic hemorrhagic disease. The Great Falls Tribune has a brief item. Check out this item on ProMed-mail for a helpful reference to the no-see-ums that transmit the disease.
[ADDITION: The day after this was posted, the state of New Jersey announced epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer in that state. You can read the press release here.]
A feral hog in Midland County, Michigan has tested positive for pseudorabies. Read the article on Michigan Live, here. Sounds ridiculously scary until you find out that porcine pseudorabies has nothing to do with rabies. It’s a herpes virus, and it doesn’t effect humans, but it does kill dogs and other animals, wild and domestic. Once again, ProMed-mail has the needed explanation. Read it here.
Also in the catagory of “needed explanations” and “wildlife disease” is a recent report in the Los Angeles Times of the “first U.S. transmission” of rabies linked to a vampire bat. Uh, no. Even the article says the man was bitten by a vampire bat in Mexico, then traveled to the U.S. Unfortunately, the story was also picked up on the gossip site Gawker.com. Here’s the LA Times story. And here’s a debunking from a biology professor at Long Island University
Finally, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently launched a new Web site on chronic wasting disease, aimed at hunters. Find the Web site at http://www.knowcwd.com/ And find an article about the Web site and Wisconsin’s “Know CWD” campaign in the Houston Chronicle.
There were just no pretty pictures for this one. Not even a nice picture of a virus available.