The population of bats in the United States is facing a serious threat of extinction due to the outbreak of a deadly fungus called Deomyces destructans. The fungus is nicknamed White-Nose Syndrome, after the white fungus that typically appears on the infected bats noses and wings. Other signs and symptoms of White Nose Syndrome are white fungus on the ears and tail as well, bats flying during the day in the middle of winter, bats clustered near the entrance to a hibernacle or cave, and general abnormal behavior for a hibernating bat. Scientifically the fungus has been identified as, Deomyces destructans. The fungus itself causes damage to their connective tissues, muscles, and skin. It also can disrupt many of their physiological processes. Typically during a hibernation period bats will wake up on average every 10 to 20 days. An infected bat on the other hand will wake up every 3 to four days which causes them to burn up their fat stores twice as fast. When they wake up they are both dehydrated and hungry, around 90% of the bats actually die from starvation due to a lack of insects for food in the winter season. WNS is transmitted from bat to bat and that is why any contact between an infected bat from one cave population with a non-infected bat from another population has serious consequences.
Throughout the Northeastern United States, since the winter of 2006, millions of cases of White-Nose Syndrome have been documented. Since its original discovery White-Nose Syndrome, WNS, has spread rapidly throughout the northeast, killing off record numbers of hibernating bat populations. Since its first detection in 2006 WNS has killed over 5.7 million bats in this area. Currently WNS has been documented in sixteen states...
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Times-Tribune. 2012. Biologists experiment with treatments for white-nose syndrome. February 23, 2012.
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It’s not the latest comic book super villain that we’re worried about, here in Northwest Ohio. No, it’s a little green beetle that, since 2003, has been munching its way through our neighborhoods and Metroparks. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) feasts on our Ash trees, leaving us little choice but to spray a bright red stripe or “X” on the trunks of the mortally wounded flora.
Barone, Eugene J., Judson C. Jones, and Joann E. Schaefer. "Hidradenitis Suppurativa." Skin Disorders. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000. 21-25. Print.
White-tailed deer, along with the rest of the Cervidae family, are facing a possible epidemic. Although the disease has not spread over the entire range CWD is efficiently transmitted between individuals. CWD is to the best of our knowledge 100% fetal and incubation can take a few years allowing for many possible transmissions. There also at this time is no form of vaccine or treatment for infected cervids. Despite efforts being put forth to control CWD, being a free-range family of animals proves control to be extremely difficult.
The biting midge (Culicoides imicola), which is responsible for this disease’s transmission, is usually contained within Mediterranean Europe; where the conditions have been exactly what the midge demands to survive (Society for General Microbiology NP). However, with an increase in average temperature of six degrees, the midge has been allowed to travel northward threatening the cattle throughout the area and even as far as England (Society for General Microbiology NP). The spread of the midge’s territory has led to an increased number of their population, along with the amount of infected cattle.
Haas, D. F. (1990). The Chronic Bronchitis And EMPHYSEMA. New York,NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Disease and parasitism play a pervasive role in all life. Many of these diseases start with microparasites, which are characterized by their ability to reproduce directly within an individual host. They are also characterized by their small size, short duration of infection, and the production of an immune response in infected and recovered individuals. Microparasites which damage hosts in the course of their association are recognized as pathogens. The level of the interaction and the extent of the resultant damage depends on both the virulence of the pathogen, as well as the host defenses. If the pathogen can overcome the host defenses, the host will be damaged and may not survive. If on the other hand the host defenses overcome the pathogen, the microparasite may fail to establish itself within the host and die.
The "White-Tailed Deer." Ccontario.org. Cornell University, 2001. http://www.cnu.edu/item/cnu Web. The Web.
Louisville Slugger has impacted the evolution of the baseball bat by showing continued excellence through the years. They have shown this excellence by making changes to be current with the world. One change they have made is adding Maple bats into their product line even if they don’t agree with it. White Ash was the main source of what bats were made out of until Barry Bonds, in 2001, broke the single season home run record. His bat was made of Maple. Now the market is close to split on the type of bat sold. Both of the types of bats have positives and negatives. The positives of White ash are that it is a strong timber, it is lighter than Maple, and it has a flexible quality that Maple doesn’t have. The negative is that after extensive
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred during the midst of World War I, and it would claim more lives than the war itself. The disease erupted suddenly without a forewarning and spread rapidly across the globe. It seemed as though all of humanity had fallen under the mercy of this deadly illness. Influenza had very clear symptoms as described by William Collier in his letter to The Lancet. After a patient seizes their temperature can run up to 105° or more while their pulse averages at about 90 beats per minute. The high temperature and low pulse are frequently combined with epistaxis (nosebleed) and cyanosis (blueness of the skin). The epistaxis is caused by the high temperature and the cyanosis is caused by a lack of oxygen due to the decreased pulse (Kent 34). The author of Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, Susan Kinglsey Kent, provides a brief history of the pandemic and documents from the time period. Many of the included documents show how unprepared and unorganized governments attempted to contain and control a disease they had never experienced, and how the expectations of the governments changed as a result of their successes and failures.
Knobler, Stacy L. , Adel A. F. Mahmoud, and Leslie A. Pray. Biological Threats and
The true hosts of M. bovis are cattle but disease has been reported also in many other domesticated and non-domesticated animals (buffaloes, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, equines a...
Parker, Steve. "Chronic Pulmonary Diseases." The Human Body Book. New ed. New York: DK Pub., 2007.
First of all, bats should be protected because they are a big part in ecosystems. According to the book “We Need Bats” by Heather Niver, they help pollinate and plant plants. “People can use bat scat to help plants grow.” (Niver, 9). “Guano is natural and safe to use than other chemicals.” (Niver, 9). Guano and scat mean poop. This means that bat scat
A fly sample was captured twice a day at noon and sunset to determine if any of these conditions were relevant. The conditions under observation consisted of human presence, wood smoke from a fire inside or outside, open windows, and simulated cattle or human odor (Vale et al. 2013). The total catches of flies were unaffected by all of these conditions. However, the rise in ambient temperatures had a significant increase in fly abundance. During the hottest months of the year, the amount of fly catches increased from 5%-13% (Vale et al. 2013). Another interesting finding was that 62% of the flies caught were female (Vale et al. 2013), the sex of tsetse flies that less commonly attack humans. Some of the flies captured were old enough to be potential vectors of sleeping sickness (Vale et al.
Pests including insects, rodents, nuisance birds, and certain mammals, are common in zoos because of the ready availability of shelter, food, and water. Control of pests is a critical aspect of preventative medicine at zoological parks. Pests are reservoirs of disease that can easily degrade the quality of the park and cause economic loss from damage to stored foods to physical facilities. Development of a comprehensive program to address a pest control problem, including safe and appropriate pesticide application protocols, generally involves determining the scope and magnitude of the problem, identifying appropriate expertise, defining who will do the work, devising a safe and effective plan, implementing the program,