News

News

(November 08, 2018) Iguanas back from the brink of extinction, stress in sharks, searching for the world's rarest turtle and more in our Health Programs' Fall newsletter......WCS One World - One HealthTM Fall Newsletter

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(October 24, 2018) From Ebola virus ecology, the super powers of bats and how to be a bat hero this Halloween, we have lots of bat news for you....How to Be A Bat Hero!  Our health team in the Republic of Congo is part of a collaborative project with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is studying Ebola viruses in potential wild animal hosts. One potential host is the incredible Hammer-headed fruit bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus), the largest fruit bat in Africa. WCS epidemiologist Dr Sarah Ols...

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(October 19, 2018) White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease that has decimated North American bat populations. First recorded in sick and dying bats in Albany, New York in 2007, it has since spread north to Canada and is spreading in the United States, killing 90-100% of bats in some caves on it's path south and west. WCS health scientists are leading a program to study bats across the Western United States to try to identify which bats are most at risk and where to target interventions before WNS arrives. Th...

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(October 16, 2018) Peste De Petit Ruminants (PPR) is a viral disease that significantly impacts the health of livestock and the livelihoods of farmers across 70 countries. It is now spilling over into endangered wildlife populations with devastating effects: in 2017 it led to a mass mortality event killing two-thirds of the Critically Endangered Mongolian Saiga.  Read a letter from our veterinarians on the conservation threat of PPR, recently published in Science >

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(September 17, 2018) Our Molecular Department has pioneered the development of a portable, hand-held smartphone based Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) field friendly kit for detection of environmental DNA (eDNA). Living organisms shed cells containing DNA into the environment, where it can be detected by extremely sensitive PCR testing. The kit was developed to detect the DNA of the nearly extinct Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), of which only four are known.Watch our lead scientist, Dr Tracie Seimo...

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