BryLog

The famous Galapagos giant tortoises could be at serious risk from mosquitoes that have developed a taste for reptile blood, experts have warned.

Scientists say increased tourism means there is now a greater risk of a disease-carrying insect being transported to the islands.  Local mosquitoes that have evolved to feed on reptiles could then pick up the diseases and pass them on.  Galapagos wildlife has little immunity to mosquitoes due to their isolation.

I previously mentioned that hunderds of thousads of bats are dying due to a fungus - apparently the problem is getting worse and spreading…

A little while back I posted a Chicago Public Radio special podcast on the recent decline honeybee popultions.  Now, it seems like the cause and its cure have been discovered (from ScienceDaily)….

For the first time, scientists have isolated the parasite Nosema ceranae (Microsporidia) from professional apiaries suffering from honey bee colony depopulation syndrome. They then went on to treat the infection with complete success.

In a study published in the new journal from the Society for Applied Microbiology: Environmental Microbiology Reports, scientists from Spain analysed two apiaries and found evidence of honey bee colony depopulation syndrome (also known as colony collapse disorder in the USA). They found no evidence of any other cause of the disease (such as the Varroa destructor, IAPV or pesticides), other than infection with Nosema ceranae. The researchers then treated the infected surviving under-populated colonies with the antibiotic drug, flumagillin and demonstrated complete recovery of all infected colonies.

Once again, loss of honeybees could have a major impact on both ecology and economies….

The loss of honey bees could have an enormous horticultural and economic impact worldwide. Honeybees are important pollinators of crops, fruit and wild flowers and are indispensable for a sustainable and profitable agriculture as well as for the maintenance of the non-agricultural ecosystem. Honeybees are attacked by numerous pathogens including viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites.

In a study published March 30, 2009 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison reports that the restoration in cats of myelin — a fatty insulator of nerve fibers that degrades in a host of human central nervous system disorders, the most common of which is multiple sclerosis — can le lead to functional recovery….

The finding is important because it underscores the validity of strategies to reestablish myelin as a therapy for treating a range of severe neurological diseases associated with the loss or damage of myelin, but where the nerves themselves remain intact…. (more @ Science Daily)

I guess I’m not going to drive down to Mammoth Cave National Park this spring

Federal officials are asking people to stay out of caves in states from West Virginia to New England, where as many as 500,000 bats have died from a disease called white-nose syndrome.

The Fish and Wildlife Service made the request to guard against the possibility that people are unwittingly spreading the mysterious affliction when they explore multiple caves. There is no evidence that the disease is a threat to people.

White-nose syndrome is named for the sugary smudges of fungus on the noses and wings of hibernating bats. White-nose bats appear to run through their stores of winter fat before spring.

The disease was confirmed in eight states this winter from New Hampshire to West Virginia and there is evidence it may have spread to Virginia, said a wildlife service spokeswoman, Diana Weaver.

Some estimates of deaths are as high as 500,000 bats. Researchers worry about a mass die-off of bats, which help control the populations of insects that can damage wheat, apples and dozens of other crops.

A quarter-century ago, American rocket scientists proposed the “Star Wars” defense system to knock Soviet missiles from the skies with laser beams. Some of the same scientists are now aiming their lasers at another airborne threat: the mosquito….

The scientists’ actual target is malaria, which is caused by a parasite transmitted when certain mosquitoes bite people. Ended in the U.S. decades ago, malaria remains a major global public-health threat, killing about 1 million people annually….

The scientists envision their technology might one day be used to draw a laser barrier around a house or village that could kill or blind the bugs. Or, laser-equipped drone aircraft could track bugs by radar, sweeping the sky with death-dealing photons.

The US capital is suffering an epidemic of HIV/Aids worse than some African nations, with 3% of over-12s infected, the city’s department of health says….The infection rate puts Washington DC on a par with Uganda.