Articles by "wildlife"
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April 16, 2020 , , , , , ,
As the UK enters it fourth week of lock down, conservationists say they have seen some hidden benefits of the restrictions in the natural world.
With fewer people in urban environments and much less traffic on the roads, scientists say there could be gains particularly for our native mammals.
Source: The BBC's Victoria Gill explains.
Date: 14 April, 2020

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April 16, 2020 , , , , , , ,
Conservation groups say nature must be a cornerstone of economic recovery plans for the sake of people, health and economies.
The call comes amid fears of a "spike in poaching" as rural communities lose vital income.
In Cambodia, 1% of the entire population of one critically endangered bird was wiped out in a single event.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said three of only a few hundred remaining giant ibis were poisoned.
And more than 100 painted stork chicks were killed at Cambodia's Prek Toal Ramsar Site, the largest water bird colony in Southeast Asia.
Conservationists are noticing increases in hunting of protected species since the spread of coronavirus began to disrupt traditional economic and social systems in rural areas, said the WCS.

"Suddenly rural people have little to turn to but natural resources and we're already seeing a spike in poaching," said Colin Poole, WCS regional director in Phnom Penh.
Conservation organisations need to be doing their utmost to support local people, he said. "They're the last line of defence for these forests, these birds, these wetlands, and they're the people that need support right now so they have alternatives and they don't need to turn to natural resource extraction to survive."
In India, there have been reports of an upsurge in tiger poaching, while there are fears in Africa that the rhinoceros and other endangered species could be at risk.
Matt Brown, director of the Africa region for the Nature Conservancy, spoke of a sudden decline in tourism revenue at some of Africa's key wildlife reserves and national parks as a result of the pandemic.
"The concern is how do these areas maintain the effectiveness of their wildlife patrolling and security when about 50% of their planned revenue for the year has now dropped to zero," he said.
And the closing of export businesses and manufacturing plants had put a lot of people out of work, which on top of the tourism drop was "a double whammy".
"There could be an increased direct poaching pressure on wildlife as a result of the downturn in the global economy," he said.

Value of nature

Finance ministers from G20 countries are meeting this week to discuss economic recovery plans to address the impacts of the pandemic.
Conservation group Campaign for Nature, which includes experts from Asia, Africa and Latin America, is calling on ministers to include protection of nature in their plans.
Hugo van der Westhuizen, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, said now more than ever was the time to re-evaluate the value of nature.
"Conservation cannot be built and maintained only on tourism income or donor funding," he said. "Covid-19 is teaching us that we take nature for granted, together with clean water and air, and it seems we need to lose something before we realize its value. Nature cannot be recreated once it is gone."
Source: By Helen Briggs
BBC Environment correspondentDate: 16 April 2020
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April 08, 2020 , , , , , , , , , ,


Date:
April 7, 2020
Source:
American Society for Microbiology
Summary:
No vaccines exist that protect people against infections by coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, or the ones that cause SARS and MERS. As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc, many labs around the world have developed a laser-like focus on understanding the virus and finding the best strategy for stopping it. Researchers now suggest that the approach they took for a MERS virus vaccine may also work against SARS-CoV-2.


No vaccines exist that protect people against infections by coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, or the ones that cause SARS and MERS. As COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc, many labs around the world have developed a laser-like focus on understanding the virus and finding the best strategy for stopping it.
This week in mBio, a journal of the American Society of Microbiology, a team of interdisciplinary researchers describes a promising vaccine candidate against the MERS virus. Since the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak began in 2012, more than 850 people have died, and studies suggest the virus has a case fatality rate of more than 30%.In the new paper, the researchers suggest that the approach they took for a MERS virus vaccine may also work against SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine's delivery method is an RNA virus called parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5), which is believed to cause a condition known as kennel cough in dogs but appears harmless to people. The researchers added an extra gene to the virus so that infected cells would produce the S, or spike, glycoprotein known to be involved in MERS infections.
"We know people have been exposed to PIV5, but it seems to be an innocuous virus in humans," said pediatric pulmonologist and coronavirus expert Paul McCray, M.D., at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, who co-led the new study with virologist Biao He, Ph.D., at the University of Georgia, in Athens. "PIV5 doesn't seem to cause a cytopathic effect."
The MERS virus cannot replicate in mice, so to test the vaccine McCray developed a mouse model that mimics human infections. The mice had been genetically engineered to express DPP4, the protein used by the MERS virus as an entry point for human cells.Lab tests showed that a single dose of the vaccine, given intranasally, effectively caused infected cells to produce the S protein, which in turn triggered immune responses against the protein in the animal host.Four weeks after the mice received the vaccine, they were exposed to a strain of the MERS virus, adapted to the mice to cause a lethal infection. The MERS virus was also given to groups of mice that had received a different PIV5 vaccine -- one without the genes for the S protein -- or an intramuscular vaccine with inactivated MERS virus.All the mice immunized with the modified PIV5 virus survived MERS virus infection. In contrast, all the mice immunized with the PIV5 without S died from the infection. The intramuscular vaccine of inactivated MERS virus only protected 25% of the mice from a lethal infection. 
The mice that received inactivated MERS virus showed above-average levels of eosinophils, white blood cells that indicate infection or inflammation. This connection raises a safety concern for inactivated MERS virus as a potential vaccine, said He. The study demonstrates that an intranasal, PIV5-based vaccine is effective against MERS in mice, said He, and should be investigated for its potential against other dangerous coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2."We're quite interested in using viruses as gene delivery vehicles," said McCray, who has also investigated similar strategies as a way to treat cystic fibrosis. Now, like colleagues around the world, McCray and He have both focused their research efforts on SARS-CoV-2, taking a similar tack to working with mouse models of infection and testing vaccines.Finding an effective vaccine against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is a race against time, McCray said.
"One hundred percent of the population is not going to be exposed to the virus the first time around, which means there will be more people to infect when it comes again," he said.
"We don't know yet if people get lasting immunity from the SARS-CoV-2 infection, so it's important to think about ways to protect the population."
Journal Reference:

  1. Kun Li, Zhuo Li, Christine Wohlford-Lenane, David K. Meyerholz, Rudragouda Channappanavar, Dong An, Stanley Perlman, Paul B. McCray, Biao He. Single-Dose, Intranasal Immunization with Recombinant Parainfluenza Virus 5 Expressing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Spike Protein Protects Mice from Fatal MERS-CoV Infection. mBio, 2020; 11 (2) DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00554-20
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April 08, 2020 , , , , , , , , ,

Veterinary scientists have recommended cat owners keep their pets indoors to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus among animals.

But the British Veterinary Association stressed "owners should not worry" about risk of infection from pets.
"There isn't a single case of a pet dog or cat infecting a human with Covid-19," Dr Angel Almendros, from City University in Hong Kong, told BBC News.
Research has shown cats may be able to catch the virus from other cats.
Dr Alemndros added that it would be sensible to keep cats indoors - where it is safe and possible to do so - during the outbreak.
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The British Veterinary Association (BVA) president Daniella Dos Santos told BBC News she agreed with that advice. But the association has since clarified that its recommendation to concerned pet-owners is to take the precaution of keeping cats indoors "only if someone in their own household showed symptoms".
Every pet-owner though should "practise good hand hygiene," she said.
"An animal's fur could carry the virus for a time if a pet were to have come into contact with someone who was sick."
In a recent paper on the subject, Dr Angel Almendros referred to the case of a 17-year-old pet dog in Hong Kong that tested positive for the Covid-19 virus - apparently infected by its owner.
"But even where we have these positive results, the animals are not becoming sick," he said.
"As in the previous Sars-Cov outbreak in Hong Kong, in 2003, where a number of pets were infected but never became sick, there is no evidence that dogs or cats could become sick or infect people."

How is the disease transmitted from humans to animals?

It appears cats may be susceptible to infection from respiratory droplets - virus particles suspended in air that people cough, sneeze or breathe out.
Following a case in Belgium where a cat tested positive about a week after its owner showed symptoms, scientists in China carried out lab tests that provided evidence of infected cats transmitting the virus to other cats.
"It is interesting to note in the experimental evidence that cats can become infected, alongside the apparent infection of a tiger [at Bronx Zoo in New York]," Prof Bryan Charleston, director of the UK's Pirbright Institute, which specializes in the study of infectious disease, said, adding that the "evidence on the transmissibility" from humans to other animals was building.

There is also evidence humans can transmit respiratory infections to wild great apes, which makes the global spread of Covid-19 a concern for conservationists working to protect critically endangered animals, including gorillas.
In all of these cases though, it is infected humans that pose the threat to other species.
Dr Almendros told BBC News: "We know that the virus did make the jump from an animal into humans [at the beginning of this crisis]". But, he explained, that this appeared to be linked to people eating those animals.
There is no evidence that domestic animals can pass this disease back to people.

"Treat pets like other people in your household. So if you're feeling sick, it's better not to interact with them," said Dr Almendros.
"I hope pet owners can sleep a bit better with the right advice and information," he added. "It isn't easy these days, I know."
Source: By Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC NewsDate: 8th April, 2020
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April 07, 2020 , , , , , , , , , ,

A four-year-old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the coronavirus.


The tiger, named Nadia, is believed to be the first known case of an animal infected with Covid-19 in the US.
The Bronx Zoo, in New York City, says the test result was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa.
Nadia, along with six other big cats, is thought to have been infected by an asymptomatic zoo keeper.
The cats started showing symptoms, including a dry cough, late last month after exposure to the employee, who has not been identified.
"This is the first time that any of us know of anywhere in the world that a person infected the animal and the animal got sick," Paul Calle, the chief veterinarian at the zoo, told Reuters news agency on Sunday.
There have been isolated instances of pets testing positive for the coronavirus elsewhere in the world, but experts have stressed there is no evidence they can become sick or spread the disease.
Mr Calle said he intends to share the findings with other zoos and institutions researching the transmission of Covid-19.
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"We tested the cat [Nadia] out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about Covid-19 will contribute to the world's continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus," the zoo said in a statement.
Nadia, her sister Azul, as well as two Amur tigers and three African lions who showed symptoms, are all expected to make a full recovery, the zoo said.
The big cats did have some decrease in appetite but "are otherwise doing well under veterinary care and are bright, alert, and interactive with their keepers", it said.
The zoo said it is not known how the virus will develop in animals like tigers and lions since various species can react differently to new infections, but all the animals will be closely monitored.
None of the zoo's other big cats are showing any signs of illness. All the tigers showing symptoms were housed in the zoo's Tiger Mountain area. It is unclear if the others will be tested.
All four zoos run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, including the Bronx Zoo, have been closed to the public since 16 March. New measures will now be put in place to protect the animals and their caretakers at all the facilities.
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What do we know about animals and the virus?

This coronavirus was first detected in humans in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
The coronavirus (called Sars-CoV-2, which causes the disease Covid-19) is thought to have originated in wildlife and been passed to humans via a live animal market in Wuhan.
The pandemic has been driven by human-to-human transmission, but the infection of Nadia raises new questions about human-to-animal transmission.

There have been less than a handful of isolated reports of companion animals testing positive for coronavirus, including two dogs in Hong Kong.
There is "no evidence that any person has been infected with Covid-19 in the US by animals, including by pet dogs or cats," the zoo's statement noted.
That is also the view of the World Organisation for Animal Health and the World Health Organization (WHO), which says there is no evidence that pet dogs or cats can pass on the coronavirus.
The World Organisation for Animal Health says studies are under way to understand the issue more. and urges anyone who has become sick to limit contact with pets.
Dr Sarah Caddy, Veterinarian and Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, is among experts to respond to the reports.
"It is surprising that the tiger has become infected with what must have been a fairly low dose of virus - we can assume the tiger did not have continual close contact with the asymptomatic zoo keeper," she said about the transmission.
"It is also interesting that the tiger showed clinical signs consistent with Covid-19 in humans. Although scientific proof is lacking, the chance this is just a coincidence is low."
Conservation experts have warned that the virus could pose a threat to some wildlife like the great apes - and have said measures are needed to reduce the risk of wild gorillas, chimps and orangutans.
Source: BBC News
Date: 6th April, 2020

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April 04, 2020 , , , , , , , , ,
The largest turtle in the ocean, the leather back gets its name from its tough, rubbery skin.
Migrating long distances a year, the turtle can cross the Pacific Ocean.
But with threats like getting tangled in fishing gear, the future for one distinct population looks "dire," say conservation groups.
At the current rate of decline, the critically endangered Eastern Pacific leather back turtle will vanish within 60 years.
We have just 10 years left to put measures in place to save it, says a group of conservation scientists and organisations including Fauna & Flora International (FFI).
"We have it within our power to protect these animals and enable them to thrive, but all those who have a hand in shaping their future need to work together to do so," said Alison Gunn, programme manager for the Americas and the Caribbean at FFI.

Leather back turtles are found across the world. While considered a single species, populations found in different oceans are reproductively distinct. The Pacific leather backs are most at risk of extinction, with both Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific leather backs continuing to decline.
Key nesting habitats in the Eastern Pacific are in Mexico and Costa Rica, with some isolated nesting in Panama and Nicaragua. Over the last three generations, there has been a greater than 90% decline in the female nesting population.
"If this particular population goes they're completely irreplaceable, because they're unique to this particular part of the oceans," said Alison Gunn. "There's a lot of conservation action happening right now. We need to increase the collaboration that's already happening in order to ensure that this population is not lost."

Key interventions

If conservation efforts are targeted and scaled up at high-priority sites, and projects are quickly implemented and maintained, the Eastern Pacific leather back population can eventually stabilize and increase, according to a population model.
Two things must be achieved in the next 10 years to save the Eastern Pacific leather back:
  • Avoiding the deaths of 200-260 leather backs a year caused by "bycatch" of turtles in fisheries
  • Producing 7,000-8,000 more hatchlings a year through better nest protection and improved incubation conditions.
Leather backs are the largest of all sea turtles, weighing up to 2,000lb (900kg) and reaching over 6ft (2m) in length.
The population of leather backs in the Eastern Pacific has declined by more than 90% since the 1980s, which qualifies as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The study is published in the journal, Scientific Reports.

Source: By Helen BriggsBBC News, science and environment (BBC NEWS)Date: 4th April, 2020

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