FLORIDA veterinarians fear a pack of BOBCATS is mauling local PETS ~ MISSOURI confirms first positive tests for CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE in free ranging DEER ~ OHIO town hires professional to trap COYOTES ~ National Forest officials in WYOMING issue alert following MOUNTAIN LION sighting ~ RABIES report from NORTH CAROLINA ~ FOLLOW-UP REPORTS: SCHMALLENBERG VIRUS spreads from northern EUROPEAN CONTINENT to the UK.

Bobcat. Courtesy National Park Service.

Florida 01/23/12 CBS12.com: Nearly a dozen pets have been mauled in recent months and local veterinarians believe a pack of bobcats is to blame. The bobcats have been spotted daily in Martin County on the peninsula of Rocky Point. Port Salerno Animal Hospital Veterinarian Jason White knows all too well about the bobcats wreaking havoc in Rocky Point.  ”There have been some cats attacked and some cats actually killed by bobcats. My recommendation is for people that live in that area to keep your cats inside, and if they are outside, they need to be monitored,” said White. Jill Welter tried to protect her pet chickens. “Well the cat was able to jump the four-foot fence, so we ended up putting up the seven-foot fence to keep the cat from attacking any more chickens. We lost three chickens total,” said Welter. Three chickens, five cats, and two dogs have been attacked in recent months. “They see another cat in their area and they attack. The cats are no match for a bobcat–a bobcat is a big cat,” said White.

Bobcats, like the ones attacking in Rocky Point, are territorial. They don’t kill pets for food, instead, they are marking their territory. The reason they’ve been more aggressive is because the Rocky Point bobcats have kittens. “Apparently there’s a mom a dad, and babies, two babies,” said Welter. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials say the bobcats are protected under state law and cannot be killed or even harmed unless a human is attacked. For now, neighbors are building fences and keeping their pets indoors.

Deer with CWD

Missouri 01/24/12 lincolncountyjournal.com: by Bob Simmons – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) received two positive test results for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) from 1,077 tissue samples taken from free-ranging deer harvested by hunters in north-central Missouri during the 2011 fall firearms deer season. Both positive test results were from adult bucks harvested by Missouri hunters in Macon County, and are the first CWD-positive results for free-ranging deer in Missouri. MDC plans to obtain more tissue samples for CWD testing by harvesting additional deer in the immediate area where the two infected deer were harvested. “Teamwork among landowners, hunters and MDC staff allowed us to detect this infection early,” said MDC Deer Biologist Jason Sumners. “We will be working with local landowners to harvest additional deer for tissue sampling. This is a first step and one of our best hopes for containing, and perhaps even eliminating, what we believe to be a recent localized event.” MDC staff have contacted the two Missouri hunters who harvested the CWD-positive bucks to inform them of the situation and answer questions. – For complete article see http://www.lincolncountyjournal.com/?p=2203

Ohio 01/24/12 Niles, Trumbull County: The city is hiring a company to capture at least two wild coyotes that were seen recently near George Street, Washington and Kennedy Park areas. Councilman Dave Wilkerson said a resident photographed two coyotes in the area this weekend. The coyotes seen this weekend were within two blocks of a home in which a woman’s small dog was dragged out of the yard and killed Jan. 3 by what may have been a coyote. “We (the city) hired a trapper for health and safety of the people living in the neighborhood,” Wilkerson said. “We want people to know a trapper will be in the area, so people will allow him to do his job.” Brian Adkins, owner of Brian’s Wildlife Nuisance, 1433 state Route 7, Brookfield, said he saw a lot of signs of coyotes in Niles when he was inspecting the area Monday. “They are elusive animals,” Adkins said. “They don’t like being around people.” Adkins is concerned about the sightings because there has been raccoon rabies identified in Trumbull County, and that can be spread to coyotes. – See http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content.detail/id/567013/Coyote-hunt-is-on-in-Niles.html?nav=5021

Wyoming 01/23/12 Jackson Hole, Teton County: A mountain lion with two approximately 7-month-old kittens were spotted Saturday near the Cache Creek trailhead, prompting Bridger-Teton National Forest officials to alert residents and trail users. Trails in the area remain open, forest officials said in a press release, and forest biologists and winter patrollers, along with Wyoming Game and Fish personnel, are using dogs to try to haze the cat family farther up the canyon. – See  http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=8162

North Carolina 01/24/12 Morehead City, Carteret County: A raccoon that killed a chicken and bit two dogs has tested positive for rabies. See http://www.jdnews.com/news/raccoon-99841-carteret-county.html

Follow-up reports:

(January 16, 2012: EUROPEAN scientists alarmed by NEW VIRUS detected in LIVESTOCK.)

Europe 01/23/12 Guardian.co.uk: A virus which causes miscarriages and birth deformities in farm animals, though it is not known to affect humans, has been confirmed at four sheep farms in Norfolk, Suffolk and East Sussex. The Schmallenberg virus is believed to be carried by midges. It surfaced in the Netherlands and Germany in August 2011, and since then on hundreds of farms there and in Belgium. The microbe is difficult to detect in adult animals, and is apparent only when they gestate. There is no known treatment or vaccine. The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge has done laboratory tests confirming Schmallenberg virus is in the UK. It said in a statement: “Although there are still some uncertainties, the risk to human health from is likely to be very low.” – For complete article see http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/23/schmallenberg-virus-confirmed-uk-farms?newsfeed=true

CANADA: LABRADOR confirms RABIES in RED FOX ~ ONTARIO CHILD bitten by COYOTE ~ BC veterinarian confirms HORSE down with WEST NILE VIRUS ~ U.S.: COLORADO MOUNTAIN LION kills black LAB ~ SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN bitten by RABID STRAY CAT ~ WEST VIRGINIA DOGS kill RABID RACCOON ~ CDC REPORTS: ZOONOTIC DISEASE summary for week ending January 7, 2012 ~ ANNOUNCEMENT: COLORADO to host 7th International Conference on TULAREMIA.

Red fox. Courtesy National Park Service.

Canada:

Labrador 01/21/12 Wabush: Officials have confirmed a case of rabies in a red fox. This is the first case of the virus confirmed in Labrador since 2005. See http://www.vocm.com/newsarticle.asp?mn=2&id=20212&latest=1

Ontario 01/20/12 Oakville: St. Joseph Catholic elementary school on lockdown after eight-year-old girl bitten by coyote. See http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1119125–oakville-girl-attacked-by-coyote?bn=1

British Columbia 01/22/12 terracestandard.com: by Margaret Speirs — Horse owners are being warned to get their steeds vaccinated against West Nile Virus after a horse in Prince George was diagnosed with the deadly disease. Prince George veterinarian Christine Murdoch recently faxed vets in the region saying that antibodies to the virus had been found in a horse that hadn’t been vaccinated against West Nile. It’s likely just a matter of time before the disease is found here; it crossed the Rocky Mountains and was found in Kamloops last year and now Prince George, said local vet Dr. David Farkvam. “The scary thing is it causes [death] and the horses that survive often have neurological conditions and have to be put to sleep,” he said. Horses should be vaccinated for West Nile in the spring, he said. Infected horses might walk oddly, walk in a circle, become wobbly on their back legs and do abnormal things like head pressing, he said.

Colorado 01/19/12 Colorado Springs, El Paso County: State officials confirm a mountain lion killed an 85-pound black Labrador dog in the Red Rock Valley neighborhood southwest of Colorado Springs. See http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30256488/detail.html

South Carolina 01/19/12 Lyman, Spartanburg County: A woman is being treated for rabies after being bitten by a stray cat that tested positive for the virus. She was bitten on her foot when the cat tried run into her house. See http://www.wyff4.com/news/30250853/detail.html

West Virginia 01/21/12 Princeton, Mercer County: A raccoon killed by dogs has tested positive for rabies. See http://bdtonline.com/local/x431305294/MCHD-reports-second-Mercer-County-ra

CDC REPORTS:

CDC MMWR Summary for Week ending January 7, 2012:

Published January 13, 2012/ 61(01); ND-1-ND15

Ehrlichiosis . . . 1 . . . Missouri,

Giardiasis . . . 67 . . . Alabama, Alaska (2), California (17), Florida (7), Idaho, Iowa (2), Maryland (3), Missouri (3), Nebraska (2),  New York (2), Ohio (12), Oregon (3), Pennsylvania (2), South Carolina (2), Vermont, Virginia (3), Wisconsin (4),

Hansen Disease (Leprosy) . . . 1 . . . New York, 

Lyme Disease . . .  70. . . Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida (3), Idaho, Maryland (8), New Jersey (37), Ohio (2), Pennsylvania (15), Virginia (2),

Rabies (Animal) . . . 6. . . Florida (2), Maine (3), New York,

Spotted Fever (Confirmed) . . . 1. . . Indiana,

Spotted Fever (Probable) . . . 5 . . . Florida (2), Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia,

 ANNOUNCEMENT

7th International Conference on Tularemia

1912-2012

100th Anniversary of first isolation of Francisella tularensis

September 17-20, 2012

Beaver Run Resort, Breckenridge, Colorado

The Tularemia International Society (TULISOC) in conjunction with the International Organizing Committee, invite you to attend the 7th International Conference on Tularemia. The conference will be held September 17-20, 2012 at Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, Colorado. Breckenridge is a Victorian mining town and popular ski resort located in the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 9600 feet (2926 m) above sea level.

The International conference on Tularemia occurs every three years and was last held in Berlin, Germany in 2009. The objective of the conference is to bring together scientists worldwide studying pathogenesis, cell biology, genomics, proteomics, animal models, diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, clinical features, ecology, epidemiology and host response to Francisella. The meeting will be comprised of keynote speakers, invited oral presentations, oral presentations selected from abstracts, moderated discussions, poster presentations, and plentiful opportunities for attendee conversation. 2012 also marks the 100th anniversary of the first isolation of Francisella tularensis in Tulare County, California. To commemorate this anniversary, this meeting will feature a session highlighting the major discoveries in F. tularensis research over a century.

Participants should plan on arriving in time for an opening session on the morning of Monday, September 17th, 2012 and departing after the closing session mid-afternoon Thursday, September 20th, 2012. There will be a conference banquet the evening of Wednesday, September 19th.

FLORIDA county issues alert after RABID BOBCAT found in homeowner’s garage ~ NEW HAMPSHIRE 9-year-old bitten by COYOTE in MASSACHUSETTS ~ OHIO expert fears state’s LYME DISEASE cases will increase ~ CALIFORNIA & MONTANA officials dispatch farm raiding MOUNTAIN LIONS ~ CALIFORNIA hikers site MOUNTAIN LIONS near UCSC ~COYOTE reports from ILLINOIS, MASSACHUSETTS, MICHIGAN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, PENNSYLVANIA, & WISCONSIN ~ RABIES reports from MAINE, & NEW JERSEY.

Bobcat. Photo by Idaho Fish & Game

 Florida 01/16/12 Nassau County: The Nassau County Health Department has issued a rabies advisory for Nassau County. A bobcat was tested positive for rabies Monday after entering a homeowner’s garage in West Nassau. See http://www.fbnewsleader.com/articles/2012/01/16/news/00newsrabiesalert.txt

Massachusetts 01/18/12 Haverhill, Essex County: A nine-year-old New Hamshire girl is receiving precautionary rabies treatment after being bitten by a coyote in her friend’s yard on January 16. See http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x1070343489/Girl-bitten-by-coyote-she-thought-was-a-dog

Ohio 01/18/12 Clevelandleader.com: An Ohio expert says that the state is seeing a “shocking” increase in deer ticks, which can carry Lyme disease. Richard Gary, an entomologist with the Ohio Department of Health, says that 183 ticks submitted to his agency last year were confirmed as black-legged ticks, which are also known as deer ticks. An additional 1,830 of the ticks were found on deer heads collected from hunters by other state offices. Some were found to carry the Lyme bacteria. Between 1989 and 2009, only 51 deer ticks were identified throughout the state. Deer ticks are most prevalent in the Ohio’s eastern and southern counties. Information about Lyme disease is now being sent out to health professionals throughout Ohio. In 2010, there were 44 reported cases of Lyme disease in Ohio.

California  01/18/12 Twain Harte, Tuolumne County: A US Department of Agriculture trapper has captured a mountain lion known to have killed at least three domestic goats. The lion was euthanized. See http://www.mymotherlode.com/news/local/1497839/Mountain-Lion-Captured-In-Twain-Harte.html

California 01/18/12 Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County: Local police warning area residents that two hikers reported seeing two adult mountain lions on Tuesday at Pogonip Park near the UCSC campus. See http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Mountain-Lions-Spotted-Near-UC-Santa-Cruz-137568383.html

Montana 01/18/12 Butte, Silver Bow County: A US Wildlife Services trapper shot the adult male mountain lion known to have killed at least two domestic goats. See http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e5d0900d5da74250a2aeda623820816a/MT–Mountain-Lion-Shot/

Illinois 01/18/12 Lake Forest City, Lake County: the presence of coyotes in suburban areas was discussed Monday night at the Lake Forest City Council meeting. See http://lakeforest.patch.com/articles/coyote-sightings-has-resident-asking-lake-forest-for-help

Massachusetts 01/18/12 Methuen, Essex County: A family on Baltic Street reported that a coyote attacked their pet Chihuahua in their yard on Tuesday and carried it into the woods. The dog has not been seen since. See http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x180451968/Coyote-carries-familys-Chihuahua-into-woods

Michigan 01/16/12 Clinton Township, Macomb County: Coyotes, alone or in small packs, have been reported in the Little Mack subdivision area. See http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/macomb_county/neighbors-say-they-have-spotted-several-coyotes-in-little-mack-subdivision

New Hampshire 01/18/12 Barrington, Strafford County: A family on Town Farm Road reported that coyote attack their pet Shetland sheep dog and carried it into the woods. The dog has not been seen since. See http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120118/GJNEWS_01/701189942

Pennsylvania 01/18/12 Greensburg, Westmoreland County: A man and his pet German Shepherd are receiving post-exposure prophylaxis rabies shots after a coyote attack on January 12. See http://www.wpxi.com/news/30244047/detail.html

Wisconsin 01/16/12 Muskego, Waukesha County: Report of three coyotes digging their way into animal pens at a rehab facility. See http://muskego.patch.com/articles/coyotes-are-at-it-again-at-acres-of-hope

Maine 01/18/12 Dixfield, Oxford County: Six members of the same family are getting precautionary rabies shots after the dogs came in contact with a skunk that later tested positive for the virus. See http://www.wmtw.com/news/30238925/detail.html

New Jersey 01/17/12 Upper Saddle River, Bergen County: A rabies alert has been issued by local police after a dog killed a raccoon that tested positive for the virus, and in a second, more recent incident, an elderly resident has been hospitalized after being attacked by a raccoon in his attached garage. See http://www.northjersey.com/news/Upper_Saddle_River_police_issue_warning_over_wild_animals_after_rabies_incident.html

What gives predators like WOLVES the greatest advantage – size or speed?

Gray wolf. Photo by Chris Muiden. Wikimedia Commons.

Yellowstone National Park 01/10/12 nsf.gov: National Science Foundation News Release by Cheryl Dybas will – A cold-eyed moon rises above Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. It is January. For Native Americans, it is the time of the Wolf Moon. Snow frozen to hardpan shrouds the valley’s tall summer grasses. It holds no tracks, tells no tales. Predators roam undetected across the icy landscape. Not so their prey. It’s well past midnight and 10 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The air itself is frozen in place. In the long dark of January, the stillness is so deep you can almost hear the rotation of the Earth. Walking along a snow-covered bank is impossible in this colder-than-cold. For a human. But not for a wolf. A distant howl pierces the glassy air. Soon there’s an echo, one wolf communicating with another from ridge to icy ridge. The faint but rising sound is an affirmation: the wolf survives. For now. The going isn’t easy.

Once common in much of North America, Europe and parts of Asia, gray wolves now roam a comparatively tiny range. In the northern Rocky Mountains, natural migration from Canada and reintroduction programs in Yellowstone–which straddles Wyoming, Montana and Idaho–and central Idaho have fostered a wolf stronghold. About 1,200 wolves live in the region today. Alaska has the largest population of gray wolves in the United States, around 6,000. Kazakhstan in Central Asia has the most of any country, some 90,000.

Hunting once felled countless numbers of the canines. Then in 1973 gray wolves were protected, listed as an endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Certain populations of gray wolves, including those in parts of the northern Rockies, have recently been “delisted,” once again opening these areas to hunting. Worldwide, habitat loss and the effects of global warming threaten the long-term future for these icons of the wilderness. In the short-term, wolves must find enough ungulate prey like elk to weather the winter. The bigger the wolf, the better its ability to hunt and take down such prey. Or so it would seem.

Dr. Dan MacNulty

To find out whether larger body size in fact leads to better predator performance, ecologist Dan MacNulty of Utah State University studied whether wolves’ size-related ability to handle prey might come at the expense of successfully pursuing that prey. MacNulty, along with scientists Doug Smith of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, Dave Mech of the U.S. Geological Survey Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, and Lynn Eberly of the University of Minnesota, published the results in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Dr. Doug Smith

Theirs was the first research to look at the effects of physical development on the predatory ability of a free-living carnivore. “This study reveals a suite of interacting traits that expand the traditional view of predator-prey interactions,” says Saran Twombly, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

Dr. Dave Mech

“While the traits are specific to the Yellowstone wolf population, this evidence for the role of evolution in predator-prey interactions greatly advances our understanding of carnivores in general.” The notion that larger predators are overall better hunters “has been cited to explain why bigger carnivores take bigger prey, and why carnivores have evolved toward larger sizes,” the biologists wrote in their paper. “But apart from broad-scale comparisons demonstrating that bigger species and the bigger sex (males) kill larger prey, the extent to which increasing size improves the overall predatory performance of individual hunters has been largely untested.”

Dr. Lynn Eberly

Evidence that male lions fare worse than female lions at chasing fleet-footed prey, but are better at grappling larger prey that stand and fight, suggested that increased size might improve handling of prey–at the expense of successful pursuit of that prey. Such a trade-off might explain why the largest carnivores lack flexible elbow joints and prefer the largest prey. “Relating growth to hunting performance in wild carnivores is challenging because these animals are difficult to observe in nature, and their size is not easily measured immediately before or after a ‘predator-prey interaction,’” says MacNulty. “We were able to watch wolves hunting elk in Yellowstone because they often did so in daylight hours in open habitats, and we could estimate their size from body mass measurements recorded during concurrent monitoring of the population.”

The researchers found that larger size did improve wolves’ skill at strength-related tasks, such as subduing elk. It didn’t, however, increase performance in what’s called locomotor tasks, like the fast-footwork involved in culling an elk from a group. Selecting prey requires choosing one elk from a group by chasing the entire group, which involves a burst of speed, says MacNulty. Then in a kill, a wolf needs to be able to grab and overpower its prey. Larger size makes it easier for a predator to hold down its prey, once caught, but a predator can be only so large before body size gets in the way of the very act of catching. A brawny predator may be better able to wrestle its prey to the ground, but in the quick movements of a chase, its slightly smaller kin may reign supreme.

To reach their conclusions, the scientists made repeated observations of 94 wolves in Yellowstone. Biologists watched as the wolves hunted elk in the grasslands of the northeastern quarter of Yellowstone, referred to as the northern range. Lamar Valley, and other open valleys and ridges, are in this area. “Low elevations there create the warmest and driest conditions in the park during winter,” says MacNulty, “providing critical cold-weather forage for elk.” A road that’s maintained on a year-round basis runs the length of the northern range, giving researchers access to this snowbound plateau. The scientists’ evidence that predator performance (but not fleet-of-foot movement) increases with size in a wild carnivore “is notable because it provides the first direct support for the hypothesis that improved predatory ability favors the evolution of large size in carnivores,” state MacNulty and colleagues in their paper. “An important consequence of larger size, however, is that it increases energetic requirements and necessitates feeding on larger prey, which tend to be more difficult to kill than smaller prey.”

If poor locomotor performance narrows the range of potential prey to bigger, slower-moving species, the scientists found, extinction may ultimately prevent carnivores from evolving toward larger sizes. “Dietary specialization increases extinction risk,” says MacNulty, “by limiting the choice of prey.” The demise of the American cave lion and other large North American carnivores at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch some 11,000 years ago, the researchers believe, may be linked to these species’ inability to switch to smaller, faster prey. At the end of today’s Holocene Epoch, will the howls of Yellowstone nights be silenced? Will January’s moon no longer be marked by the sign of the wolf?

PET owners being warned: It’s COYOTE mating season ~ CALIFORNIA’s UC Berkeley and Taft School District issue MOUNTAIN LION alerts ~ CALIFORNIA confirms five HORSES have contracted potentially fatal EHM virus ~ EUROPEAN scientists alarmed by NEW VIRUS detected in LIVESTOCK ~ NEW JERSEY WOMAN attacked by a FOX ~ RABIES report from VIRGINIA.

Coyote. Courtesy National Park Service.

National 01/13/12 Excerpt: Dr. Kristin Mansfield, a veterinarian with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, was quoted as saying that it is coyote mating season through March. She explained that coyotes will sometimes kill dogs in order to eliminate competition. She says she has found similar behavior in coyotes in California that would kill foxes by removing their heads and burying them elsewhere. Living in the country, we’re wary of wildlife anytime of the year and we don’t allow our small dogs to wander outside alone. Moran’s property, as reported in the press, is in a cul-de-sac and backs up to woods. What many suburbanites do not realize is that while wildlife are crowded out of their habitat, they have increasingly been returning to their once natural areas, which are now suburbs. This becomes dangerous for people, but especially for small dogs and cats. Statistics aren’t available to estimate how many domestic pets are killed by wild predators every year, but the increased frequency of reports in the news concerning coyote attacks on pets comes from every corner of the country, from the east to west coasts and every place in between. See http://www.petside.com/article/coyote-mating-season-owners-should-be-vigilant-pet-predators

Author’s Note: On Friday, January 13, 2011 news articles about coyotes attacking dogs were reported in Scottsdale, Arizona; Aliso Viejo, California; New Lenox, Illinois; and Kingston, Washington; Cambridge, Ontario, Canada; and Oakville, Ontario, Canada.

California 01/13/12 Berkeley, Alameda County: UC Berkeley police issued safety alerts this week following reports of a mountain lion seen at a campus housing complex Tuesday and of two mountain lions last month at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The alerts on Thursday and Wednesday, which can be found on the campus police Facebook page, reported an unverified sighting of a cougar just after 10 p.m. Tuesday on top of a dumpster at the Smyth-Fernwald apartment complex, which is located in the Berkeley hills near the top of Dwight Way northeast of the Clark Kerr campus. Last month, there was an unverified sighting of two mountain lions running along Lawrence Road toward Glaser Road at Berkeley lab, which lies in hilly terrain directly east of the main Cal campus, police said. See http://elcerrito.patch.com/articles/mountain-lion-sightings-prompt-police-alert

California 01/13/12 Taft, Kern County: The Midway School District near Taft is on alert after two mountain lion sightings within the past few weeks. “We’re taking it seriously. When kids are involved you have to take it seriously,” Midway Superintendent Greg Coker said. On Tuesday, about 6:30 a.m., a teacher went on campus to unlock all of the doors to the school. She said she saw the mountain lion walking on the sidewalk near the doors. That’s when she called the Department of Fish and Game. See http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Mountain-lion-sighted-on-school-campus-near-Taft-137224953.html

California 01/14/12 Orange County: Nine months after a potentially fatal equine virus swept western states, the disease is back. Five new cases of Equine Herpes Myoencephalitis (EHM), also referred to as neurological Rhino, a mutated form of the Equine Herpes Virus 1 (EHV-1) were reported at a facility in California by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Last May, equestrian events throughout the western United States were cancelled due to an outbreak of the potentially lethal virus that began at an equestrian event at the Golden Spike Equestrian Center in Ogden, Utah, and spread rapidly to horses in California, Washington, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.

EHM attacks the horse’s neurological system and in some cases, the horse must be euthanized. The virus is easily spread and has a high morbidity and mortality rate. Signs of EHM in horses may include nasal discharge, in a coordination, hindquarter weakness, recumbency, lethargy, urine dribbling and diminished tail tone.  According to the CDFA all of the cases have been confined to one unidentified facility in Orange County and are under quarantine. The property where the horses are located was described as a large multi-discipline facility by the CDFA, with no movement of any horses on or off the premises. See http://agourahills.patch.com/articles/deadly-horse-virus-erupts-again-in-california

Northern Europe 01/13/12 wired.com: by Kai Kupferschmidt for ScienceNow – Scientists in northern Europe are scrambling to learn more about a new virus that causes fetal malformations and stillbirths in cattle, sheep, and goats. For now, they don’t have a clue about the virus’s origins or why it’s suddenly causing an outbreak; in order to speed up the process, they want to share the virus and protocols for detecting it with anyone interested in studying the disease or developing diagnostic tools and vaccines.

 The virus, provisionally named “Schmallenberg virus” after the German town from which the first positive samples came, was detected in November in dairy cows that had shown signs of infection with fever and a drastic reduction in milk production. Now it has also been detected in sheep and goats, and it has shown up at dozens of farms in neighboring Netherlands and in Belgium as well. According to the European Commission’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, cases have been detected on 20 farms in Germany, 52 in the Netherlands, and 14 in Belgium. Many more suspected cases are being investigated. “A lot of lambs are stillborn or have serious malformations,” Wim van der Poel of the Dutch Central Veterinary Institute in Lelystad says. “This is a serious threat to animal health in Europe.”

“We are taking this very, very seriously,” adds Thomas Mettenleiter, head of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute (FLI), the German federal animal health lab located on the island of Riems. The virus appears to be transmitted by midges (Culicoides spp.), and infections likely occurred in summer and autumn of last year, but fetuses that were exposed to the virus in the womb are only now being born. The first cases of lambs with congenital malformations such as hydrancephaly — where parts of the brain are replaced by sacs filled with fluid — and scoliosis (a curved spine) appeared before Christmas. “Now, in some herds 20 percent to 50 percent of lambs show such malformations,” Mettenleiter says. “And most of these animals are born dead.”

Scientists are bracing for many more cases to appear, especially in cattle, because bovine fetuses infected in summer 2011 would be expected to be born in February and March. – For complete article see http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/new-animal-virus/

New Jersey 01/13/12 Bernards, Somerset County: A local woman is receiving post-exposure prophylactic rabies treatment after two separate incidents involving one or more foxes on December 29. A fox bit a pedestrian and ran off in the first incident, and in the second a fox attacked and bit the wheels of a baby stroller and was later killed by a police officer. See http://baskingridge.patch.com/articles/two-fox-attacks-spur-treatment-numerous-phone-cal

Virginia 01/13/12 Blacksburg, Montgomery County: Health officials say the rabid skunk was killed by two dogs at the Blacksburg Dog Park on Tom’s Creek Road, last weekend. It’s the first confirmed rabies case in the New River health district this year. One of the dog’s owners reported the diseased animal; but health officials are still looking for the owner of the second dog, believed to be a black lab. See http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-rabid-skunk-found-in-local-dog-park-20120113,0,3376851.story

PENNSYLVANIA woman attacked on her porch by RACCOON ~ Scientists concerned about PATHOGENS found in confiscated ANIMAL PARTS imported from AFRICA ~ RABIES reports from CONNECTICUT, NORTH CAROLINA, OKLAHOMA, TEXAS, & VIRGINIA ~ FOLLOW-UP REPORTS: CALIFORNIA reports lone GRAY WOLF OR-7 now in Lassen County.

Raccoon. Photo by Darkone. Wikimedia Commons.

Pennsylvania 01/12/12 Pittsburghlive.com: by Jewels Phraner — Penn Township officials are warning residents to be cautious around wild animals after a Harrison City woman was bitten by a raccoon on her porch and had to undergo a series of rabies shots. The township issued the warning in a news release on Wednesday, but did not provide further details about the incident.

Mangabey monkey.

National January 2012 newscientist.com: by Peter Aldhous — The illegal bushmeat trade not only threatens the survival of endangered species in Africa, but could also lead to outbreaks of deadly human diseases in North America and Europe. A pilot study of bushmeat seized at US airports has found ape and monkey parts infected with retroviruses and herpesviruses. None of these viruses were known killers, but this small study has just scratched the surface of a trade that is known to be large.

“Seventy-five per cent of emerging diseases move to humans from wildlife, either directly or through our livestock,” says Kristine Smith, a wildlife veterinarian with the EcoHealth Alliance in New York City who led the study. The bushmeat trade could provide a hidden conduit for disease transmission, the researchers say.

Gambian giant rat.

The legal trade in exotic pets is already known to pose a similar risk. In 2003, an outbreak of monkeypox infected dozens of people across several US states. It was traced to an animal dealer near Chicago, where an imported Gambian giant rat gave the virus to prairie dogs that were later sold as family pets. A thriving trade in smuggled bushmeat in Europe and North America has been uncovered in recent years. Smith’s study, which involved a large team from organisations including the Wildlife Conservation Society and the American Museum of Natural History, both in New York City, is the first to examine how the smuggling could trigger outbreaks of human disease. – For complete article see http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21347-lethal-viruses-could-leap-continents-in-bushmeat-trade.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Connecticut  01/11/12 Waterford, New London County: The Ledge Light Health District has announced that a raccoon found in the Shore Road area has tested positive for rabies. See http://www.theday.com/article/20120111/NWS04/120119880/1047/NWS

North Carolina 01/12/12 Wilmington, New Hanover County: An injured feral cat picked up at Hart Street residence earlier week is the first animal to test positive for rabies in New Hanover County this year. See http://www.wwaytv3.com/2012/01/12/first-rabies-case-of-2012-reported-new-hanover-county

North Carolina 01/12/12 Guilford County:  A raccoon found on Buckingham Road is the first confirmed case of rabies in the county this year. See http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/01/12/article/guilford_reports_first_rabies_case_of_2012

Oklahoma 01/12/12 Purcell, McClain County: A skunk captured in the backyard of an animal clinic earlier this month tested positive for rabies. See http://www.purcellregister.com/articles/2012/01/12/news/doc4f0dbdd6ceeba390959177.txt

Texas 01/12/12 Corsicana, Navarro County: A skunk shot by police within the city limits last week has tested positive for rabies. See http://www.athensreview.com/breakingnews/x2145132945/Rabid-skunks-confirmed-in-Corsicana

Virginia 01/12/12 Patrick County: State officials confirm a horse in the southern part of the county has tested positive for rabies. See http://www2.wsls.com/news/2012/jan/12/rabies-confirmed-patrick-county-horse-ar-1607390/

 Follow-Up Reports:

(See November 3, 2011: Lone GRAY WOLF in Oregon travels 300 miles crossing Cascades looking for mate and new territory; November 12, 2011: Oregon Wild launches CONTEST for youngsters to come up with new name for a lone GRAY WOLF known only as OR-7; November 15, 2011: OREGON’s OR-7 lone WOLF crosses into Jackson County; December 13, 2011: OREGON’s wandering lone WOLF – OR-7 – captures the imagination of a worldwide audience; December 20, 2011: The now famous OREGON GRAY WOLF known as OR-7 is still traveling alone; January 3, 2012: CALIFORNIA officials confirm GRAY WOLF OR -7 has crossed state line.)

California 01/12/12 sacbee.com:    A lone gray wolf that has zigzagged hundreds of miles through Oregon and California has been moving east and is now in Lassen County. California wildlife officials said Tuesday that the male wolf, the first gray seen in the state in more than 80 years, moved from eastern Shasta County to the state’s northeastern Lassen County this week.

MINNESOTA students sickened by rare bacteria in DEER meat ~ OREGON WOLF PACK kills first LIVESTOCK of the New Year ~ CALIFORNIA officials persuade MOUNTAIN LION to leave residential area ~ WYOMING officials kill MOUNTAIN LION in residential area.

Whitetail deer. Photo courtesy of U.S. Army.

Minnesota 01/11/12 vitals.msnbc.msn.com: by Linda Carroll — A Minnesota high school science project that involved hunting and butchering deer – including one road-kill capture — and turning the meat into venison kabobs backfired when 29 students were sickened with a rare kind of E. coli food poisoning, investigators say. The 2010 incident just now reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases highlights the risks of E. coli contamination, not just from factory-produced meat, but also from small, local providers. Doctors first knew they had a problem in December 2010 when two kids from the same high school turned up at a Minnesota hospital with abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. Fearing they had a food poisoning outbreak on their hands, they quickly called in the state’s top-notch public health officials. Both teens had taken part in a school environmental science and outdoor recreation class that involving hunting, shooting and butchering six white-tailed deer, explained Joshua Rounds, the study’s lead author and an epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Public Health. A seventh deer was harvested after being hit by a car, the report says. The deer were processed on school grounds and then grilled and eaten in class a few weeks before the students got sick.

Epidemiologists interviewed 117 kids in five class periods and found that 29 definitely had become ill, but not with E. coli O157:H7, the strain commonly associated with food poisoning from ground beef. Rounds suspected the deer might have carried another E. coli strain that also produces poisons known as Shiga toxins. He was right. Samples from the students and the deer meat turned up E. coli O103:H2, which is part of a larger category of non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing E. coli bugs, known as STECs. Scientists also turned up another E. coli strain, E. coli O145:NM that didn’t produce Shiga toxins. STECs are becoming a more worrisome form of E. coli, so much so that federal agriculture officials are poised to begin banning six strains of the possibly lethal bacteria from some forms of beef in the nation’s food supply starting next spring. Under the new regulations, the bacteria will be considered adulterants and it will be illegal to sell beef contaminated with the bacteria collectively dubbed “the big six,” including Shiga-toxin producing E. coli O103 and O145.

Instant meat thermometer

In the case of the Minnesota deer hunters, the source of the problem was clear. People don’t usually get sick from eating hunks or steaks of muscle meat, Rounds said. In this case, however, the meat had been skewered and cooked only to medium rare. The skewers had dragged contaminants from the meat’s surface down to the center of the kabobs, which hadn’t been cooked to a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria. Unless the entire hunk of meat is cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, there’s a risk of food poisoning, Rounds said. Another factor was hand-washing when handling meat — or the lack of it, Rounds said. Not everyone in the class was as fastidious about cleaning their hands as they could have been. “If you think about high school males, they’re probably not the best when it comes to food safety practices,” he said. “So you can have cross-contamination.” The case is a reminder, Rounds said, that all meat, no matter where it comes from, should be treated with careful precautions.

Oregon 01/11/12 opb.org: by Elane Dickenson — The year’s first livestock kill by wolves in Wallowa County was confirmed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife the first of this week. A 10-month-old replacement heifer was killed early Saturday morning, Jan. 7, in a pasture on the Triple Creek Ranch, managed by Scott Shear, just six miles southeast of Joseph on Tucker Down Road. “This brings to 21 the number of livestock confirmed killed by the Imnaha pack since spring 2010,” said ODFW wildlife communications officer Michelle Dennehy. She said there are a minimum of five wolves in the Imnaha pack. ODFW notified the Shears at 5 a.m. Saturday that, according to a signal from OR4, the pack’s collared alpha male, the wolf was in the vicinity of their cattle. They found the dead heifer a short time later. Among those who gathered to view the ODFW necropsy of the dead animal at the Shear ranch were Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts and State Rep. Greg Smith of Heppner, who was in Joseph to watch a wrestling tournament. “The damage caused to the animal by the wolves is what’s appalling,” said Roberts.

ODFW had planned to kill two Imnaha pack wolves because of ongoing depredation of livestock, but there is currently a court stay-of-execution of the wolves in effect. Wolf “range rider” Will Voss is back on the job at the request of the Shears. “When the wolves come back into the valley, it’s time for Will to go back on the job,” at a Scott Shear, who is vice president of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Association. He said that Voss, who worked as range rider last year, will be monitoring cattle ranches in the area at night in his pickup. Shear said he valued the heifer at $1,500, but that it could have produced calves for the next 10 years. “What value do you put on that,” he asked. He plans to put in a compensation claim when the state starts taking claims in February. This is Shear’s second livestock loss due to wolves and he has also reported fence damage due to wolves chasing his cattle. “There’s a place for wolves and this isn’t it,” he said.

California 01/11/12 hidesertstar.com: by Jimmy Biggerstaff — A mountain lion stand-off ended peacefully for all concerned here Monday morning. The cat climbed a utility pole in Larry Klein’s front yard in the 56200 block of Perris Street. The adult female, weighing around 85 pounds, jumped or fell about eight feet from the pole and took refuge under a pickup truck. San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Jacob Naylor responded to the call. He notified the state’s Department of Fish and Game, which dispatched Game Warden Rick Fischer, who was enforcing fishing laws on Silverwood Lake in the San Bernardino mountains. Fischer called in biologist Jeff Villepique to help determine the best way to handle the situation. When the cat did not seem inclined to vacate her spot under the truck, the game warden and biologist loaded their shotguns with bean-bag rounds, with the deputy acting as back-up with regular buck shot. “I loaded two bean-bag rounds with a third round of buck shot just in case,” Fischer said after the event. Fischer said when wild animals get scared they usually run as fast as they can the other way, “But they’re wild animals so you can’t predict just what they’ll do.” The stand-off ended when the three officials cautiously moved in and were able to coax the big cat into bolting for open desert. When the cat came off the utility pole, she may have received a laceration under its left eye, or the mark may have been an earlier injury. “Otherwise, she was totally healthy and did not exhibit any unusual behavior,” Fischer said. “That cat was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She didn’t anything wrong, she just got caught where she didn’t want to be,” the game warden explained. “Underneath that truck was the safest place at the time. Our goal was to return her to her habitat and that’s just what we did.” Mountain lions are more common in the mountains, where they prey on deer.

Wyoming 01/11/12 trib.com: Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials authorized killing a mountain lion Tuesday in a residential area in north Gillette near Warlow Drive. Most residents saw the mountain lion pass through their neighborhood on Monday. The 2-year old, 100-pound female lion appeared to be in good physical condition, but wouldn’t leave the area. The lion was euthanized for public safety reasons based on the animal’s location and behavior. Any attempt to immobilize and relocate the animal could have resulted in increased danger to the public. Human/mountain lion interactions, although infrequent in Wyoming, can be serious. Mountain lions primarily prey on deer. Do not attract mountain lions to residential areas by feeding deer.

CONNECTICUT four-year-old attacked by RACCOON ~ RABIES report from NORTH CAROLINA ~ CALIFORNIA’s San Mateo County officials report two MOUNTAIN LION sightings.

Photo courtesy Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

Connecticut  01/09/12 thedailywilton.com: by Anna Helhoski – A 4-year-old Greenwich boy was bitten by a raccoon while his mother was out getting the mail, police said. As the child’s mother walked to the bottom of the driveway to collect her mail, she heard her son screaming. “A raccoon was biting his hand,” said Lt. Kraig Gray, spokesman for the department. “The child had gloves on at the time, and the raccoon pulled the glove off with its mouth.” The mother screamed, scared the raccoon away and took her son to the hospital immediately, said Gray. The child had a minor scratch on his hand, and the doctor told police the child would be receiving antibiotics and a rabies shot. Police said the raccoon was not found.

Caution. Raccoon prowling in broad daylight. Photo by Walter Underwood.

Animals investigated for rabies are typically sent to the Connecticut Department of Health’s lab in Hartford for testing. “There are always some concerns with raccoons, foxes and coyotes for rabies,” said Gray. “Wildlife is just that – wild. You should always be cautious with all strange animals, domestic or otherwise.”

North Carolina 01/10/12 FayObserver.com: The second suspected case of rabies this month has been reported in a bat that was found in the Ponderosa neighborhood, authorities said. The bat was picked up Friday on Rimrock Court off Cimarron Drive, according to a release from Cumberland County spokeswoman Sally Shutt. The bat was sent to the state health lab in Raleigh, where tests for rabies were inconclusive, Shutt said. Because the results were unsatisfactory, local officials must treat the case as if the results were positive, she said. Inconclusive rabies test results also were reported in early January on a dog that attacked its owner on Dec. 31, Shutt said.

California 01//12 Mercurynews.com: In a matter of hours two mountain lions were spotted in different parts of San Mateo County Monday night, San Mateo County emergency officials said. The first sighting was around 7 p.m. near state Highway 92 just east of state Highway 35, emergency officials said. About four hours later and less than 15 miles away around 11:15 p.m. a big cat was seen just east of Lindenbrook Road in Woodside.

CALIFORNIA biologist believes GRAY WOLF now called “Journey” (formally designated OR-7) faces uphill struggle ~ CALIFORNIA introduces new state web page inspired by GRAY WOLF called “Journey” ~ RABIES reports from NEBRASKA, NORTH CAROLINA, & TEXAS ~ CANADA: Ottawa launches $100,000 study of HUMAN-COYOTE conflict in NOVA SCOTIA.

Not "Journey". Photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service.

California 01/06/12 redding.com: by Ryan Sabalow — A Department of Fish and Game biologist in charge of monitoring a wild gray wolf that’s made its way from Oregon to eastern Shasta County this week spoke bluntly and in stark terms Friday about the likelihood the wolf dubbed OR-7 by biologists will survive long enough to find the mate he’s already traveled more than 800 miles hoping to locate. “Most wolves don’t successfully establish a new pack or even join a new pack,” said Mark Stopher, a DFG senior policy adviser based in Redding. “They die along the way.” Stopher said while some wolves have been tracked traveling more than 6,000 miles as they seek a new pack or a mate, the vast majority don’t make it nearly that far. Instead, they’re met with the harsh realities of life in the wild, where wolves get sick, starve to death or are mortally wounded while trying to take down a large prey animal like a deer or an elk, Stopher said.

Then there are the deadly human obstacles wolves encounter along what were once their historic ranges, things like cities and train tracks and highways. Of course, hostile humans also pose a risk, even though the wolf is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act, Stopher said. The latter is the reason why so far Stopher’s agency has declined to reveal OR-7′s exact location to the public. If too many details are disclosed, there’s a risk someone might try to hurt the wolf, Stopher said. Indeed, not everyone is welcoming of OR-7.

In an interview last week with the Los Angeles Times, Siskiyou County Supervisor Marcia Armstrong said the wolf should be shot on sight because of the threat it poses to livestock and people. She later softened her remarks in an interview with the Sacramento Bee. “It’s unfair to ask people to live with this dangerous predator,” she told the Bee. “It’s romantic, maybe, for urban people. But this affects our quality of life. It affects when we go out to get mail from the mailbox: Do we have to carry a gun?” The last fatal wolf attack was in 2010 in a small southwestern Alaskan village, something experts say is incredibly unusual and unlikely to occur elsewhere. But OR-7′s Imnaha pack does have a history of killing ranchers’ animals, though there have been no reports OR-7 has killed any livestock during his journey to California, Stopher said.

Imnaha wolf pack.

The Imnaha pack, which now consists of four other wolves since OR-7 left, killed at least 20 cattle between the spring of 2010 and mid-December, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reported. The agency had been lobbying to have two of the wolves shot but was blocked from doing so by the state’s courts. Russ Morgan, the wolf coordinator for Fish and Wildlife, said the recent kills represented a “significant” change in the pack’s behavior. Stopher said “there’s certainly a concern” OR-7 learned to kill cows. But he said since OR-7 was collared 10 months ago, biologists have never tracked his location to one of the cattle kills. OR-7 also left the pack after it started taking down fully grown cows, Stopher said. – For complete article see http://www.redding.com/news/2012/jan/06/wolf-faces-tough-travels/

California 01/09/12 LATimes.com: by Dean Kuipers — In response to the arrival of Journey, the Oregon wolf that is now roaming northern California’s Shasta County, the California Department of Fish and Game has put together a gray wolf Web page. The DFG put up the new page in response to a huge wave of public interest in the wolf, which is known as OR7 because of its origins in Oregon’s Imnaha wolf pack. – For complete article see http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-california-wolf-inspires-new-state-webpage-20120109,0,3411579.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fscience%2Fenvironment+%28L.A.+Times+-+Environment%29

Nebraska 01/06/12 Columbus, Platte County:  Columbus Animal Control officers are looking for a stray dog that bit a 17-year-old girl on 18th Street a week ago near the old hospital building. The dog, described as a medium-sized black dog with longer hair, was last seen heading west in the 3000 block on 18th Street. Officers said the dog must be found or the victim will need to receive rabies vaccinations. Anyone who knows the whereabouts of this animal should contact Animal Control at (402)-564-8839 or the police department at (402)-564-3201.

North Carolina 01/06/12 Alamance County: A skunk that was killed by two unvaccinated puppies earlier in the week at an address on Mine Creek Road has tested positive for rabies. See http://www.digtriad.com/news/health/article/207282/8/First-Rabies-Case-Of-2012-Reported-For-Alamance-County

Texas 01/06/12 Parker County:  As many as 18 people may have been exposed to a three month old male Husky mix puppy that has tested positive for him. See http://weatherforddemocrat.com/local/x205473363/Confirmed-rabies-case-in-county

Canada:

Nova Scotia 01/09/12 WinnipegFreePress.com: by Michael MacDonald — Parks Canada plans to pay an American biologist $100,000 to come up with a plan to reduce encounters between people and coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. The proposed contract announced Monday comes more than two years after a young Toronto woman was mauled to death by coyotes while hiking alone in the park. Taylor Mitchell’s death on Oct. 28, 2009, marked the first recorded fatal coyote attack in Nova Scotia, and only the second in North America. Ten months later, an unidentified 16-year-old Nova Scotia girl was bitten twice on the scalp as she slept outside at one of the park’s campgrounds. The girl needed stitches to close her wounds. The maulings were among several coyote attacks across Nova Scotia that prompted the province to offer a $20 bounty for coyote pelts. About 2,600 of the province’s 8,000 coyotes were trapped last season for the bounty. An official with Parks Canada said no one was immediately available for comment. The federal government’s two-year project in Cape Breton will include live-trapping coyotes in the park and tracking them with global positioning system collars. Parks Canada says the contract will be awarded to Stan Gehrt at the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation in Dundee, Ill., unless a better bid comes forward in the next two weeks. – For complete article see http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/ottawa-launches-100000-study-to-reduce-coyote-encounters-in-cape-breton-park-136949748.html

Two young girls dub OREGON’s wandering WOLF “Journey” ~ CALIFORNIA’s San Diego County health officials trap DEER MICE with HANTAVIRUS ~ WISCONSIN pet owners warned of COYOTE attacks ~ RABIES reports from FLORIDA, MASSACHUSETTS, NEW JERSEY, NORTH CAROLINA, & WISCONSIN ~ CANADA: RABIES report from NUNAVUT.

Gray Wolf (not Journey). Courtesy U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Oregon 01/04/12 oregonwild.org: News Release — After ten days of public voting, the wolf formerly known as OR-7 now has a name. Capturing just over 40% of nearly 700 online votes, the winning name for the first wolf west of the Cascade Mountains in 65 years and the first wolf to enter California in nearly a century is “Journey.” The name suggestion came from a 7 year old girl in Mountain Home, ID and an 11 year old in Dickinson, ND. The naming contest is part of the larger Connect with the Wild initiative sponsored by the conservation group Oregon Wild. The contest, launched in early November, was inspired by the adventures of “OR-7,” a young male wolf who broke away from the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon and eventually traveled over 700 miles to his new home in the wild backcountry of northern California’s Siskiyou County. – For complete news release see http://www.oregonwild.org/about/press-room/press-releases/famous-trekking-wolf-gets-apt-new-name-2013-201cjourney201d

Author’s Note: On January 6, NBC News with Brian Williams featured a segment about the wandering two-year-old male wolf from Oregon now known as “Journey”. According to biologists who have been tracking him, sometime between Wednesday and Thursday afternoon his satellite signal was picked up in California’s eastern Shasta County.

Deer Mouse

California 01/05/12 lajollalight.com: Two deer mice trapped last week in Carlsbad have tested positive for the potentially-deadly Hantavirus. A combination of 53 MICE and VOLES tested positive for hantavirus in the county in 2011, more than double the 21 that tested positive in 2010. Hantavirus can cause hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS), which begins with flu-like symptoms but can escalate into severe breathing difficulties and even death. “This record high number of positive rodents is most likely due to two years of ample rain,” said Jack Miller, director of the County Department of Environmental Health. “The rain increases vegetation which provides plenty of food and shelter for the rodents to breed and multiply.” Infected mice and voles rarely pose a danger to people when they are in the wild. But when they infest homes and garages, people can contract hantavirus by inhaling dust particles from rodent droppings and nesting materials that contain the virus. There is no treatment, vaccine or cure for hantavirus infections, which are deadly in 36 percent of cases, according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. – For complete article and safety precautions see http://www.lajollalight.com/2012/01/05/hantavirus-discovered-in-north-county/

Wisconsin 01/05/12 wkow.com: by Jill Courtney & Teresa Mackin — A warning for pet owners in Madison, after a coyote attacked a small dog early Wednesday morning. It happened on the 1400 block of W. Skyline Road before 8:00 a.m. Thirteen-year-old Ean Miller said, “This morning I was laying in bed, and I heard something weird. I thought it was a cat and I didn’t really think about it. Then I saw my mom run down the hall crying; she said Scarlet was taken by a coyote down through the woods.” They haven’t seen five-year-old Scarlet since. Ean and his dad went looking for the dog, but only found another coyote nearby. Coyote sightings aren’t unheard of in the Highland neighborhood of Madison. There was another dog attack back in 2009. And just this November in the Milwaukee area, a coyote killed a dog there. Eric Lobner, Wisconsin DNR District Wildlife Supervisor, said, “Coyote populations in Madison and urban areas are actually quite high, certainly higher than most people realize… Coyote populations are probably only behind raccoons and songbirds in an urban setting.”- For complete article see http://www.wkow.com/story/16446093/dog-attacked-by-coyote-in-madison

Florida 01/05/12 Ocala, Marion County: A rabies alert has been issued after a raccoon tested positive for the virus. See http://www.ocala.com/article/20120105/ARTICLES/120109868/-1/entertainment02?Title=Rabies-alert-issued-in-SE-Ocala

Massachusetts 01/04/12 Montague, Franklin County: Health officials say a fox that bit an elderly Montague man last month has tested positive for rabies. See http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/01/04/fox_that_bit_montague_man_had_rabies/

New Jersey 01/05/12 Commercial Twp., Cumberland County: A raccoon that tested positive for rabies exposed a dog and three people to the virus. See http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.ssf/2012/01/rabies_case_reported_in_commer.html

North Carolina 01/05/12 Maiden, Catawba County: A cat that lived in the Golf Course Road area has tested positive for rabies. See http://hickory.wbtv.com/news/news/70329-first-confirmed-case-rabies-2012-catawba-county

Wisconsin 01/04/12 Wausau, Marathon County: The health department is looking for a dog that bit a man in Wausau today. The dog is a large brown dog with darker brown hair near its ears. The bite happened around noon on 10th Avenue between West and Rosecrans Streets in Wausau. Authorities need to verify the dog’s vaccination status so they don’t have to give the victim a series of rabies shots. If you have information, you should call the sheriff’s dispatch center at 715-849-7785.

Canada:

Nunavut 01/04/12 Igloolik: Residents of Igloolik are on alert for a potential rabies outbreak after a fox caught in the Baffin community tested positive for the virus last month. See http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674igloolik_on_alert_after_fix_tests_positive_for_rabies/