Office of the Regional Executive for Biology - Central Region
6-20-2002
Well, just as soon as I send an update on WNV a new,
farthest west, occurrence is reported. A blue jay northwest of Houston has been
confirmed with WNV.
Thomas J. Roffe, PhD, DVM
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center
USGS-BRD
FWP Bldg, 1400 S. 19th Ave.
Bozeman, MT
T: 406-994-5789
F: 406-994-4090
Cell: 406-539-4955
Supporting
Documents:
Date: Wed 19 Jun 2002
From: Pablo Nart <p.nart@virgin.net>
Source: Houston Chronicle, Wed 19 June 2002 [edited]
First Appearance of West Nile Virus
in Texas
The first confirmed case of West Nile virus in Texas was
discovered in a dead blue jay in northwest Houston this week and officials
warned residents on Tuesday to take precautions against the potentially
deadly mosquito-borne disease. Health officials have been anticipating the
disease's arrival for months. The first human case occurred in New York in
1999 and spread via migratory birds through dozens of states, infecting 66
people and killing 9.
The infected bird was found last week in a yard near
the intersection of Gessner and Hammerly, approximately one mile from Addicks
Reservoir and 4 miles from Bear Creek Park, a popular recreational facility.
Local health and mosquito control departments said on Tue 18 Jun 2002 that
tests done at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston confirmed
the finding late on Mon 17 Jun 2002. The bird was among a dozen tested
recently and the only one that tested positive so far. Ray Parsons, Harris
County's mosquito control chief, said as many as 4 birds may also have tested
positive, but those results will be confirmed today.
The county has been regularly testing birds and
mosquitoes since the disease began to spread across the country. "We now
expect to see West Nile move around the county," Parsons said at a
hastily called news conference late on Tue 18 Jun 2002. Public health
officials here have been worried about West Nile's arrival since the virus was
detected in Louisiana this spring. Parsons said they expected to start seeing
it this summer, but were surprised by how quickly it spread to Texas. So far,
3 birds and 11 horses have tested positive in Louisiana. A vaccine to protect
horses is now available. This spring, the Houston Zoo began using the horse
vaccine on its collection of valuable and rare birds, in anticipation of the
virus's arrival.
Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the city of Houston's
Health and Human Services Department, said the threat to humans is relatively
small, about the same as that for St. Louis encephalitis. She said about 1
percent of mosquitoes in an affected area carry the virus; of the people who
get bitten, only 1 percent become seriously ill. The Culex mosquito, which
bites from dusk until dawn, is the primary carrier of West Nile virus in this
area, she said. People should avoid the outdoors during those hours, and make
sure screen doors and windows fit tightly. Residents should also rid their
yards of standing water where mosquitoes can breed.
6-24-2002
Jury still out on vaccination policy to
combat foot and mouth disease
Brussels: The case for a vaccination policy as part of
contingency planning for future foot and mouth disease outbreaks is worth
considering, but more work on vaccines is needed, and the jury is still out on
how effective such a policy would be, a panel of leading animal health experts
told the Temporary Committee on Foot and Mouth Disease [chaired by Redondo
Jimenez] yesterday.
The crucial stumbling block was, the experts agreed, that
there was still no commercially available foolproof means of distinguishing
between vaccinated and infected animals. Several days are needed for immunity
to take effect. Vaccinated animals could, in theory, be carriers of FMD and
pass on the infection, although Dr Yves Leforban, from the Food and
Agriculture Organisation in Rome, thought that this possibility had been
over-stated.
Professor Fred Brown, an eminent virologist, called
for the vaccines to be perfected and evaluated. Dr Kris De Clercq, from the
Belgian Ministry of Public Health, advocated the development of mass
virological screening as a means of avoiding mass culling in future.The use of
preventive vaccination in Europe had reduced the numbers of outbreaks from
hundreds of thousands in the 1960s to a couple of thousand in the 1980s and
1990s but it had not eradicated the disease. The policy was abandoned in 1991
for trade reasons as importing countries were unwilling to take the political
risk of accepting imports of meat and dairy produce from vaccinated animals.
Dr J Pearson, from the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) stressed,
however, that OIE rules did not actually ban the exporting of products from
vaccinated animals. All the experts were adamant that there was no danger to
human health from consuming products from vaccinated animals.
Vaccination as part of an overall strategy to control a
future outbreak was, the panel said, a highly complex issue. Careful decisions
would have to be taken on the method of vaccination to be used, since each
method -- e.g. suppressive vaccination, blanket vaccination, ring vaccination
around a source of infection or buffer vaccination to provide a protection
zone -- had its advantages and disadvantages. Responding to questions from
MEPs, Dr Alex Donaldson, Head of Pirbright Laboratory at the Pirbright
Institute for Animal Health in England, said adequate stocks of vaccine would
not have been available at the beginning of the UK outbreak. Dr Tony Little,
Vice-President of the British Veterinary Association, pointed to restrictions
of livestock movements as the cornerstone of the UK's new policy on
controlling infectious animal diseases and highlighted illegal meat imports as
a key source of infection.
Date: 23 Jun 2002
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Journal Sentinel, 19 Jun 2002 [edited]http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/jun02/52553.asp
Elk tests positive for bovine
tuberculosis
Wisconsin got more bad news on the animal health front on
Wed 19 Jun when state officials
announced that an elk has tested positive for bovine tuberculosis on a
Manitowoc County elk farm. The finding has prompted animal health officials to
begin examining nearby farms that raise cattle or goats - two other species
that get the disease, which can be transmitted to humans.
Wisconsin's last case of bovine tuberculosis in elk
occurred in 1999. The last case in cattle happened in Shawano County in 1995.
Wednesday's announcement follows the discovery of chronic wasting disease in
wild white-tailed deer in Dane and Iowa counties - the first positive tests
for the disease east of the Mississippi River.
The Department of Natural Resources is in the early stages
of overseeing an unprecedented killing of 25 000 deer within a 361-square-mile
region west of Madison to stem the spread of the disease.
One possible explanation for chronic wasting disease
in Wisconsin is that captive elk or deer were shipped into Wisconsin from
infected areas in the West, and those animals infected wild deer here.
However, state Agriculture Department officials said
there is no link between the chronic wasting disease outbreak and the elk
testing positive for tuberculosis. "The fact that elks get chronic
wasting disease and an elk has TB is completely coincidental - there is no
relationship between the two diseases," said agriculture department
spokeswoman Donna Gilson.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection while chronic wasting
disease is caused by an abnormal prion that attacks the brain of elk or deer,
eventually killing the animal, said Wesley Ramage, vice president of the
Wisconsin Commercial Deer & Elk Farmers Association. "The good news
to this is that we test for both diseases, it was discovered, and we are doing
something about it," Ramage said.
The name of the elk farmer was not released Wednesday
because the case is still under investigation, Gilson said. One focus of the
investigation is why four elk herds within a 6-mile radius have tested
positive for the disease (TB) since 1997.
The infected elk on the Manitowoc County farm was killed.
The farm has been under quarantine since mid-April when a preliminary test
showed the animal had the disease. A follow-up was negative and then a longer,
more accurate test revealed on Monday that the elk had TB.
The farmer has the choice of killing his entire herd and
getting compensated through state and federal indemnification programs or
continuing a testing program and killing animals that test positive for the
disease. If the farmer chooses the latter, he cannot market any of his animals
for five years.
Although some elk on Wisconsin farms have been tested for
chronic wasting disease, the elk that had TB was not tested for chronic
wasting disease. Gilson said agriculture officials did not think testing was
necessary because elk from the farm are not believed to have any connection to
elk that have tested positive for chronic wasting disease in the West.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that the finding
would not change Wisconsin's status as a TB-free state. The designation is
important for farmers who want to market their animals out of state.
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