Only 2 Days Left until World Rabies Day 2008!
Organisations around the world will be aiming to raise awareness and understanding about the importance of rabies prevention on the second annual World Rabies Day on 28 September. The Alliance for Rabies Control (ARC) is leading World Rabies Day (WRD) initiative, which is sponsored by numerous human and animal health organizations worldwide too. Its aim…
Melamine in the Centre of Food Safety Scandal in China
Two infants have already died after they were fed milk formula laced with melamine and doctors are fighting to save the lives of over 1250 babies who have fallen ill with kidney stones.
Death takes the poor man’s cow…
Seven years since the major outbreak of foot and mouth disease devastated farming here in the UK, another animal health disaster story is unfolding just over a thousand miles to the south, in Morocco. A viral disease, called peste des petit ruminants (PPR), in sheep and goats has broken out in Morocco for the first…
Recent Television Reviews
Well it has been a veritable delight of televisual output from the BBC in recent weeks with “Lost Land of the Jaguar” and “Britain from Above”. If you have missed any of these and are lucky enough to have access to the iPlayer I would recommend a catch-up, otherwise clips have been placed on YouTube…
The Chinese Mitten Crabs US invasion reaches eastern coastline
The Chinese Mitten Crab (Eriocheir sinensis), originally a native of East Asia, quickly invaded the European coastline as well as the western coast of the US. Now it looks as if their pincher movement to invade the US is complete. Within the last week The Marine Invasions Research Lab, Maryland, has reported that the Chinese…
F is for….
Firefighters…fishermen…or farmers? What do you think these three groups of professionals might have in common? All of them save lives, of course. Or they could be doing, as a result of new data presented yesterday in a satellite symposium held as part of the Nutrition Society’s 2008 Summer Meeting. Experts meeting to discuss the latest…
From cats to sea otters, whales and maybe even humans
You may already have read, in one of the many magazines, news services and blogs that have picked up this story (see here, for example), about some findings presented the other week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, and more recently at the annual meeting of the Pacific division of the…
Perhaps some dinosaurs died of malaria
Back in January I wrote about the book ‘What bugged the dinosaurs? Insects, Disease and Death in the Cretaceous‘, by George and Roberta Poinar (click here to read what I said then). We have now obtained a copy for indexing for CAB Abstracts, and I have had a chance to take a quick look at…
The International Day for Biological Diversity – 22 May 2008
Biodiversity and Agriculture is the theme for 2008’s International Day for Biological Diversity. Agriculture is a key example of how human activities have profound impacts on the ecosystems of our planet. This year’s day seeks to highlight the importance of sustainable agriculture not only to preserve biodiversity, but also to ensure that we will be…
Be KIND to nettles
AS an avid reader of fairytales in my youth, I was always intrigued by the story of the seven ravens. Seven princely brothers condemned to be ravens by day can only be rescued if their beautiful sister is prepared to pick nettles, barehanded, spin them into thread and weave the lot into seven shirts. Unfortunately…