| Gloria 2007-10-31, 3:25 am |
| On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:20:36 +0000, amacmil304@aol.com wrote:
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/7068447.stm
>
Red squirrels 'face deadly virus'
The endangered red squirrel population of Anglesey's Newborough Forest
is facing a new killer virus, experts say.
One animal is known to have died of a deadly adenovirus, the first
documented case in Wales. Two others are thought likely to be
diagnosed with the virus.
Conservationists say it is a "worrying development" in work to protect
the island's squirrel population of 200.
Earlier this year, the reds faced an outbreak of "squirrel pox",
carried by grey squirrels, but it was averted.
Scientists hope to use the same techniques - washing the nest boxes
with an antiviral disinfectant - to head off the spread of the latest
threat, which causes a fatal diarrhoea in infected animals.
Dr Craig Shuttleworth, woodland ecologist at Menter Môn, which runs
the Anglesey red squirrel project, said seven cases of red squirrel
adenovirus have previously been recorded in Britain, all in north west
England.
He said the symptoms - typically unusual lesions and diarrhoea - were
hard to confirm as the squirrels' intestines began to decompose within
three hours and their bodies were unlikely to be found in time for
tests to work.
The animal which tested positive had one of the highest viral counts
ever observed in a red squirrel, said Dr Shuttleworth, and it was
likely that other wild red squirrels would have been exposed to the
virus.
He said scientists were becoming increasingly concerned about the
possibility that the virus may have caused severe declines in red
squirrel populations in previous years.
"We have been checking all of our red squirrel nest boxes for dead
animals, and have cleaned all of our red squirrel feeders with an
anti-viral wash," said Dr Shuttleworth.
"At the moment we have no evidence of an island-wide disease
epidemic."
Grey squirrels
The three squirrels were found over a seven-day period in September.
The test results on the first confirmed case were passed on to Menter
Môn by the Vetinarary Laboratories Agency in Surrey last Friday.
Anglesey's red squirrel population is shared between Pentraeth and
Newborough forests and the broadleaved woodlands around Beaumaris.
In May, conservationists celebrated after the steps to defeat squirrel
pox, including removing all grey squirrels, prevented an outbreak of
the disease in 700-hectare Newborough Forest.
>Perhaps the stress of being continually monitored and artificially
>supplied with feed boxes is relevant and It seems significant that
>where the conservation level is highest this disease has broken out
>amongst the squirrels. There most probably is a connection.
>
>The panic cleaning of the boxes shows that the so-called
>conservationists might be responsible for the problem themselves.
That's CONservation hooliganism at work for you. The red squirrel is a
goldmine and the scam charities are coining it in.
>Angus Macmillan
>www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
>www.killhunting.org
>www.con-servation.org.uk
>
>All truth passes through three stages:
>First, it is ridiculed;
>Second, it is violently opposed; and
>Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
>-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
|