September 14, 2013 – HEALTH – A rare fungus found in soil and trees has sickened hundreds of people in British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest in the last decade — and killed dozens — but scientists now say they’re seeing different strains of the potentially deadly bug in additional U.S. states. As of June, 171 cases of infection caused by Cryptococcus gatti, a fungus once confined to tropical climates, had been reported in the U.S. That includes at least 100 cases in Oregon and Washington, where officials have been tracking an outbreak since 2004. But at least 25 cases have been detected in eight states outside of the Northwest since 2009 — and six of those patients died, according to a new report in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. No one’s calling it a public health crisis; officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they just want to raise awareness. “It is really, really rare; very few people get infected by this,” said Dr. Julie Harris, a fungal disease expert with the CDC. “You can still go outside, you can still do your daily activities.”Of the six patients in the new tally who died, four succumbed to severe lung and brain infections before they were diagnosed. A previously healthy 18-year-old Georgia woman showed up at a community hospital with a headache and fever — and died within two weeks of getting sick. Of those who provided travel information, none had been to the Pacific Northwest recently, the study found. Thirteen of the newest U.S. cases were reported in California, with five more in Georgia, two in New Mexico and one each in Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan and Montana. The original outbreak was caused by three specific strains of C. gattii, but the new cases, including those in nearby California, were caused by unrelated strains, Harris said.
September 14, 2013 – SOUTH DAKOTA – A whitetail deer die off is occurring again this year in Bennett County. At this point there have only been a few reports of dead deer, and all have been from the eastern part of the county. The most likely cause of the die off is epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), which was the cause of the die off in 2012. At this point all of the deer reported dead in this area have been whitetails, but one mule deer was confirmed to have died of the disease in a different county. Other counties north of us are also reporting losing whitetails. There are several strains of EHD, with some of the strains affecting whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope and elk. The strain that was present last year did kill some mule deer and some elk, although the primary loss was whitetails. There were also some reports last year of cattle being infected in the area. Prior to last year, it was assumed that while cattle can carry the disease, they did not show any symptoms.
September 13, 2013 – PERU - The Peruvian government has declared a 60-day state of emergency in areas close to the Ubinas volcano, located about 70 kilometers outside of Arequipa. Authorities are concerned about the potential effects of volcanic ashes and gas on local villagers and their livestock. According to Andina news agency, the area covered by the state of emergency are the Moquegua districts of Ubinas, Matalaque, Chojata, Omate, Coalaque, Ichuña, Lloque, Yunga, and the Arequipa district of San Juan de Tarucani. Furthermore, Peru21 reports today that the village of Querapi will be permanently relocated within a year. Querapi, a small town populated by about 25 families, has been hit hard by the recent eruptions from Ubinas.
September 12, 2013 – LYONS, Colo. (AP) — Heavy rains and scarring from recent wildfires sent walls of water crashing down mountainsides early Thursday in Colorado, cutting off mountain towns, forcing the University of Colorado to cancel classes, and leaving at least three people dead. Boulder County was hit hardest, with up to 6 inches of rain falling over 12 hours. But flooding was reported all along the Front Range, from Colorado Springs to north of Fort Collins. Capt. John Burt of the Colorado State Patrol said a storm cell moved over the mountains during the night.
September 12, 2013 – STANHOPE, NJ — Four foxes have tested positive for rabies in Stanhope, an unusual occurrence that has prompted health officials to urge residents to get their pets vaccinated immediately. The rabies-infected animals were among five foxes destroyed by police and tested after they had charged two police officers and people walking their dogs in the vicinity of Lake Musconetcong. One woman was bitten on both ankles and her dog was also bitten by a fox today on Musconetcong Road. Her dog was one of two that bitten last week, police said. “This is unusual, four out of five is unusual. It’s an anomaly” Sussex County health administrator Herb Yardley said. “People need to have their animals vaccinated for rabies. Even pets that don’t go outdoors. If they get out just once, they could be exposed,” said Yardley, speculating that a single den of foxes could have been exposed in Stanhope after one of its members became rabid. Ralph D’Aries, chief of the rabies program at the county Department of Environmental and Public Health Services, said the woman who was bitten is undergoing treatment for her injuries and the dogs, who had been vaccinated, are being quarantined for 45 days as a precautionary measure.
September 12, 2013 – CANADA - The waters off British Columbia, Canada, are littered with dead starfish, and researchers have no idea what’s causing the deaths. At the end of August, marine biologist and scuba enthusiast Jonathan Martin was out on his usual Saturday dive with some friends when he noticed something unusual. “We just started noticing dead starfish that looked like they had their arms chopped off,” Martin said. They were sunflower starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a major marine predator in the area that feeds mostly on sea urchins and snails. Like most starfish, the sunflower starfish can regenerate lost limbs—it can have up to 20—and can grow to be up to three feet (a meter) across. Since Martin was diving in an area frequented by crabbers, at first he thought the sunflower starfish had gotten caught in some of the crab traps and had lost limbs escaping. But Martin kept seeing large numbers of dead starfish as he and his friends swam to a marine park where such crab fishing is illegal. Martin knew then it wasn’t the traps that were causing the starfish deaths. After returning from the dive, he visited friends at a local dive shop who were active in marine conservation. Without any definitive answer, he shared photos on Flickr and videos on YouTube—taken at Lion’s Bay and Whytecliff Park in Vancouver—to try to get ideas from others about what was going on.
September 12, 2013 – NETHERLANDS - A newly discovered fungus that feasts on the skin of amphibians is threatening to decimate a species of salamander in the Netherlands, according to new research. Fire salamanders are one of the most recognizable salamander species in Europe, and are characterized by their distinct yellow- and black-patterned skin. Since 2010, fire salamanders have been mysteriously dying off in the forests of the Netherlands. Now, scientists have identified a deadly fungus, called Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (the second part of the name translates to “salamander-eating”), that they say is jeopardizing biodiversity and bringing fire salamanders close to the brink of regional extinction. Previously, a fungus species related to the salamander-eating variety was the culprit behind mass amphibian casualties around the globe. That fungus, named Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, is thought to have devastated more than 200 amphibian species worldwide, the researchers said. The fungus Bd also causes the disease chytridiomycosis, which has been labeled the most devastating infectious disease in vertebrate animals by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The detection of a new fungus that rapidly kills fire salamanders is an alarming development, said An Martel, a professor in the department of pathology, bacteriology and poultry diseases at the Ghent University in Belgium, and lead author of the new study. “In several regions, including northern Europe, amphibians appeared to be able to co-exist with Bd,” Martel said in a statement. “It is, therefore, extremely worrying that a new fungus has emerged that causes mass mortalities in regions where amphibian populations were previously healthy.”
September 12, 2013 – KAZAKHSTAN – Mortality of 3 thousand saiga antelopes has been registered in Akmola and Karaganda oblasts in central Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the press-service of the Ministry of Environment Protection of Kazakhstan. About 1.5 thousand carcases of betpakdalinski saiga antelopes were found at southern, western and northern shores of Tengiz Lake. This type of saiga antelopes also inhabits lowlands and steppes. All the involved national and local authorities were informed about the animals’ die-off. The Ministry’s subordinate Committee of Forestry and Hunting in cooperation with the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems and Veterinary Service of Karaganda Oblast are investigating the die-off site. Measures to find out the scale and causes of the mortality are being taken. The Ministry held an emergency briefing and arranged a group that will investigate the causes of the occasion. The group includes representatives of Ecology Departments of Akmola and Karaganda Oblasts, Veterinary Services, Emergency Situation Department, Internal Affairs Department and Sanitary and Epidemiological Control Service. Saiga antelopes mortality was registered in Kostanay Oblast in May 2012. The approximate number of dead antelopes exceeded 600 that time. –Tengrin News
September 12, 2013 – NEW MEXICO - Officials with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish are puzzling over the mysterious deaths of more than 100 elk, apparently all within a 24-hour period, in rural New Mexico. The elk were found Aug. 27 on a 75,000-acre ranch north of the city of Las Vegas. Livestock deaths, by themselves, are not unusual — there are many things that can fell large animals, including predators, poachers, a natural or man-made toxin, disease, drought, heat, starvation, and even lightning. But so far wildlife officials have seemingly ruled out most of these possibilities: The elk weren’t shot (nor taken from the area), so it was not poachers. Tests have come back negative for anthrax, a bacteria that exists naturally in the region and can kill large animals. There seems to be no evidence of any heavy pesticide use in the area that might have played a role in the die-off. Though lightning strikes are not uncommon in the Southwest and in New Mexico specifically, killing over 100 animals at one time would be an incredibly rare event. It might be an as-yet unidentified disease, though killing so many at once — and so quickly — would be very unusual. Another possibility is some sort of contamination of the well or water tanks, but so far no toxins have been identified. Wildlife officials are hopeful that they will be able to identify the cause of death — if for no other reason that it would give peace of mind to ranchers and hunters.
September 12, 2013 – OHIO – Veterinarians, health officials and dog owners are alarmed by the mysterious recent deaths of four dogs in Ohio. Some experts suspect the dogs may have died a few days after exposure to a virus that’s normally found in pigs. Three dogs in the Cincinnati area and a fourth dog near Akron died in August after exhibiting symptoms that included vomiting, bloody diarrhea, weight loss and lethargy, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “We feel obligated to make sure pet owners are aware this is happening,” Erica Hawkins, communications director for the Ohio Department of Agriculture, told the Dispatch. “Supportive therapies can be helpful if started early enough.” The three dogs from Cincinnati died last month after staying in the same kennel. The Akron dog that died was one of several in the Akron-Canton area that showed the same symptoms. A stool sample from the Akron dog tested positive for canine circovirus, a recently isolated virus. Circoviruses are spherical viruses (grouped within the family Circoviridae) that are commonly found in birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication Emerging Infectious Diseases. Until recently, the only mammals known to carry circoviruses were pigs. But in 2012, a 1-year-old dog in California was brought to the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital after being kenneled for three weeks. The dog had bloody diarrhea and was vomiting; because of the poor prognosis, the dog was euthanized and its tissue was sampled to determine the cause of death.
September 12, 2013 – COSTA RICA - For the last three days, locals in La Fortuna de San Carlos have reported that they believe the Arenal Volcano might be awaking from a period of low activity, saying they have heard rumblings and have taken photos of plumes of vapor emerging from the volcano. The possibility of an increase in volcanic activity at the volcano has brought a sense of optimism to some in the community, which depends highly on tourism but has seen a fall-off in tourists since the volcano went essentially dormant three years ago. However, experts are cautioning not to get too excited. The Volcanolgical and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) said that the plumes are steam containing mostly water, which may be the result of a recent increase in rainfall that subsequently makes its way into the fractures of the volcano, producing steam when it reaches het sources. OVSICORI noted that plumes of steam have appeared frequently in the last few years, especially when rainfall increases, and ruled out the possibility of magmatic gas emissions.
September 11, 2013 – ALABAMA – A baseball-sized meteor blasted over the southeastern United States on Monday night, creating a bright streak of light, a sonic boom and a ruckus on Twitter, officials said on Tuesday. The meteor appeared at 9:18 p.m. EDT over Alabama, traveling at about 76,000 mph. It exploded 25 miles above Woodstock, Alabama, located about 30 miles from Birmingham. “Objects of this size hit the Earth’s atmosphere on a daily basis, but this one happened near Birmingham, which is a fairly decently sized city and lot of people saw it,” Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told Reuters. Many of the more than 180 eyewitness reports came from people attending a Mumford & Sons concert in Birmingham.
September 11, 2013 – TEHRAN – Iran is ramping up its threats to the United States even as the American effort against Iranian client state Syria has ground to a crawl. President Obama made his case to the American people and the world community Tuesday night that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad must not be allowed to escape the consequences of using chemical weapons on civilians as the two-year-long Syrian civil war drags on.
September 10, 2013 – AUSTRALIA - Scientists in Victoria are attempting to learn more about the increase in the number of earthquakes in the Gippsland region. Seismologists are describing the region as an earthquake hotspot. There were only 50 earthquakes recorded up until 2009, but since then there have been 700. The activity has been particularly high in the Strzelecki Ranges which lie between the Latrobe Valley and the Gippsland coastline. Locals have been intrigued by the tremors for years.
September 10, 2013 – INDONESIA - Mount Lokon in Tomohon, North Sulawesi, erupted again at 6:30 a.m. local time on Monday, spewing volcanic material from the Tompaluan Lokon crater up to 1,500 meters in the air. “The lava flow reached several northern area villages, namely Pineleng, Tanawangko and Tateli,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho in Jakarta on Monday, as quoted by Antara news agency.
September 10, 2013 – SYRIA - A chemical attack may be launched on Israel by Syrian rebels from government-controlled territories as a “major provocation,” multiple sources told RT. The report comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed that Syria puts its chemical weapons arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction in order to prevent a possible military strike against the war-torn country.
Israeli PM cancels trip to Italy: The ongoing Syrian crisis has compelled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cancel a planned trip to Italy this week, government sources confirmed Monday. A few weeks ago Netanyahu planned a trip to Rome where he was to meet Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had planned to be there at the same time.
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