Support for International Travel to the 2006 WDA Meeting

Although people in the western world are beginning to understand the importance of wildlife health, those in the developing world that live with and depend on wildlife for survival have long understood these connections. However, the advances in our understanding of wildlife have not necessarily spread to those that need them the most.

The Wildlife Conservation Society Field Veterinary Program has generously donated three bursaries of US$1500 each to assist wildlife health professionals from the developing world to attend the 2006 Wildlife Disease Association meeting in Storrs, CT (conference website here). The Wildlife Disease Association is the globe's premier organization focussed on wildlife health, and consequently this is a great opportunity to promote the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

If you know of someone who might benefit from these bursaries, please forward the announcement (here it is). Given the difficulty non-US scientists have in obtaining visas to enter the US, the sooner the better!

Damien

Conference Announcement: Advancing Global Health: Facing Disease Issues at the Wildlife, Human, and Livestock Interface

This should be a good meeting for professionals involved in wildlife disease issues (at least I hope so as I'm helping organize it!)

Damien

Advancing Global Health: Facing Disease Issues at the Wildlife, Human, and Livestock Interface

The 55th Annual Meeting of the Wildlife Disease Association in conjunction with the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians will be held August 6-10, 2006 on the main campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut, USA.

With news headlines that make avian influenza, SARS, Ebola, and West Nile virus household words, it is apparent that the health of wildlife is inextricably linked to that of people and domestic animals. Diseases that cross the wildlife, human and livestock interface have enormous health, economic, and social ramifications. Consequently, there is a great need to improve collaboration and communication among wildlife, livestock and human health practitioners. The Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) and the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (AAWV) invite members from a variety of human and animal health disciplines to attend a conference entitled "Advancing Global Health: Facing Disease Issues at the Wildlife, Human, and Livestock Interface". This meeting will bring together animal and human health practitioners in one forum to discuss these increasingly challenging issues.

Who should attend and/or submit abstracts?

Ecologists, veterinarians, medical practitioners, biologists, researchers ... Any professional with an interest in animal and human health.

The University of Connecticut is located in a rural setting midway between the major metropolitan areas of Boston and New York City. Meeting participants will enjoy the peaceful beauty of this rolling-hills campus setting with all the advantages of New England's top ranked public university. As the host site of the 2006 Conference, the University is proud to showcase the results of "UCONN 2000", an unprecedented 10-year, $1 billion renovation and construction program to rebuild, renew, and enhance the University of Connecticut and its facilities.

For more information, please visit the conference website at:

http://www.conferences.uconn.edu/wildlife/ or email Damien Joly at wda.2006@gmail.com

Seal Hunt part 2

I apologize for continuing to be way off topic, but I just had to reproduce this. It's brilliant.



On the other hand - poverty is strongly linked to health, so perhaps discussing an issue that is so important to northern and Maritime economies (and consequently health) maybe is not so far off?

Think Pam, Paul, and Brigid are listening?

(photo comes from here)

Seal hunt

I know this is a wildlife disease blog, not a political blog, but after having worked in the Canadian North and seeing Northern cultures and economies destroyed by previous incarnations of the anti-fur lobby, I feel moved to promote a link to an important article on this issue in the Edmonton Journal.

I apologize for neglecting this blog. I've been super busy, but hope to start participating again.

Damien

ProMED round up on avian influenza in Canadian birds (domestic and wild)

ProMED had a couple stories on the findings of low pathogenic avian influenzas in Canada.

Here is a snippet:

Tests revealed low pathogenic strains of H5N9 in 2 birds and H5N2 in
5 birds in the western province of British Columbia, H5N1 in 2 birds
from the central province of Manitoba and H5N3 in 2 birds from the
eastern Quebec province, officials said.

(original source here)

Damien

CP: H5N1 avian flu viruses found in Manitoba, but not Asian form of virus: source

Two of the wild "ducks" in the 2005 Interagency Wild Bird Influenza Survey have turned out to be low pathogenic H5N1 ( story):

TORONTO (CP) - The Canadian Press has learned wild ducks in Manitoba have tested positive for H5-N1 avian flu viruses, but not the dangerous form of the virus circulating in Southeast Asia.

The findings will be reported by federal officials at a news conference Saturday afternoon.

Specifically,

the genetic code of the two proteins on the surface of the Manitoba H5-N1 viruses have confirmed these viruses are from the family of North American H5-N1 viruses, not the strains circulating in Southeast Asia

Damien

CTV: H5 bird flu found in B.C. duck; strain uncertain

Story here, and press release from the BC Ministry of Agriculture here.

According to a post on CurEvents, the H5 positive duck was from a free-ranging duck farm (no idea if this is true). It will be interesting to learn whether this appearance of H5 is related to the presence of H5 in wild waterfowl. If so, this event underscores the need for biosecurity on poultry farms, whether in Asia or North America. Once again, we are seeing the importance of controlling disease at the livestock, wildlife and human health interface (boy, readers of this blog must get tired of me writing this!)

We should hear in a week or so what the neuraminidase subtype is.

Damien

Please support ProMED

Click here to support ProMED.

Here is commentary from Michael Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy:

"I just went online and made my contribution to the ProMED
Internet-a-thon. But I'd be remiss if I didn't also take
time to thank you and the other editors for your wonderful
and invaluable service. I can't imagine a world today
without ProMED. You are an invaluable part of the
international public health infrastructure. And I never
take for granted all the efforts that you and the other
editors put in to make this a seamless and everyday service."

Damien

Nature: Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence

New paper here by Lloyd-Smith et al. on the effect of individual variation in infectiousness. I haven't read it yet, but by the abstract it looks very interesting.

From the editor's summary:

From Typhoid Mary to SARS, it has long been known that some people spread disease more than others. But for diseases transmitted via casual contact, contagiousness arises from a plethora of social and physiological factors, so epidemiologists have tended to rely on population averages to assess a disease's potential to spread. A new analysis of outbreak data shows that individual differences in infectiousness exert powerful influences on the epidemiology of ten deadly diseases.

Damien

Weekly Standard: Fuss and Feathers

Interesting and informative article here by Michael Fumento.  He addresses some of the hyperbole in the media.

Here's a snippet from the end of the article:

Bottom line? We are all going to die. But from various causes. There probably will be another pandemic, but nobody knows when or what its origin will be. We do know that with every month that passes, we'll be better prepared. Unless the current panic, having failed to materialize, makes us overly complacent. That's a real possibility. In 1976, swine flu went from "next pandemic" to laugh line on Saturday Night Live in record time. And as for those anointed experts, public health officials, and reporters whose wall calendars always read "1918"--it's time to buy a new one.

Damien

WCS: Urge Congress to Establish an Early Warning System for Avian Influenza that Includes Wild Bird Surveillance

The Wildlife Conservation Society has a campaign to support the development of a global network for wild bird disease surveillance, including avian influenzas.  People can follow this link to a site where, with one click you can send correspondence to US Federal government representatives in support of developing such a network.

I really believe that we need to be looking at wild bird health, and wildlife health in general, to protect human health.  When over 60% of the 1400 human pathogens can transmit among humans and animals (e.g., are zoonotic), and over 75% of emerging infectious diseases zoonotic in origin (reference), we can little afford to ignore animal diseases.  This program would provide an early warning system for new pathogens, such as avian influenza.

Damien