Tag: wildlife

PCR Testing for Bird Flu ‘Will Only Serve to Raise False Case Count’ Critics Say

Dr. Deborah Birx, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, told CNN’s Kasie Hunt the U.S. is making the “same mistakes” with bird flu that it made with COVID-19, which she said spread because there wasn’t enough testing for asymptomatic infection.

Birx is now calling for every cow to be tested for bird flu weekly and for regular pooled tests for dairy workers. She also said it’s likely that undetected cases are circulating in humans.

“We have the technology,” Birx said. “The great thing about America is we’re incredibly innovative and we have the ability to have these breakthroughs.”

The technology Birx referenced is polymerase chain reaction or PCR testing — the same diagnostic tool that came under fire during the COVID-19 pandemic for producing inaccurate results, including false positives.

Speaking out on X (formerly Twitter), critics like Simon Goddek, Ph.D., pushed back, accusing Birx of “deliberately using the same strategy to fabricate another fake health emergency.”

On Wednesday, the day after Birx’s interview, JAMA published its own article advocating for more widespread bird flu testing.

“No animal or public health expert thinks that we are doing enough surveillance,” Keith Poulsen, DVM, Ph.D., director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told JAMA.

Andrew Pekosz, Ph.D., from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told JAMA that more testing should be conducted to find asymptomatic and mild infections. Workers at infected farms should be tested twice weekly, he said, and cows should be tested once a week.

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Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz wants Congress to OK killing rare whale

Of all the movies ever made in Florida — “Body Heat,” “Cocoon,” and “Spring Breakers,” to name a few — the one with the oddest concept was “The Truman Show.”

Jim Carrey plays a man with a sunny disposition who has no idea that secret cameras are recording every moment of his life for the entertainment of millions.

“Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night,” he’d cheerfully tell his neighbors, not realizing they were actors.

This movie was filmed in a seaside Florida town named Seaside. The town is real, not a movie set. I know someone who grew up in the house that Carrey’s character occupied in the movie, and so do you. His name is Matt Gaetz, and he’s the pompadoured U.S. congressman representing a chunk of the Panhandle.

Lately, though, Gaetz, R-Venmo, seems to be copying a much dourer fictional character. He’s been styling himself after Captain Ahab from “Moby Dick.”

He’s set a course to take out a whale. Or several.

Not a white whale, of course. No, he wants to harm the rarest whale on earth.

The Rice’s whale is the only one that lives entirely in the Gulf of Mexico. The species, discovered only recently, is definitely endangered. Scientists estimate that there are fewer than 100 of them — maybe as few as 51.

And Gaetz wants Congress to OK the military bombing the heck out of them.

Even though the military doesn’t want to do that.

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Badger culls to continue in England despite lack of scientific evidence

Badger cull licences have been issued by the government despite its own scientific adviser saying there is “no justification” for doing so.

Leaked documents seen by the Guardian show the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs this month issued 17 new licences to continue culling badgers, overruling Dr Peter Brotherton, the director of science at Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England.

Badgers are culled to the point of local extinction because they spread bovine tuberculosis (bTB) to cattle, and the disease can wipe out entire herds. Last year, figures released by Defra revealed more than 210,000 badgers had been killed since the cull began in 2013. However, scientific reports have shown that killing badgers is not the most effective way to end the disease.

Brotherton told Defra that while in previous years a cull could be justified, “based on the evidence, I can find no justification for authorising further supplementary badger culls in 2024 for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease and recommend against doing so”.

Defra officials said that in response they were pushing ahead with the cull because farmers who were most affected by bTB would lose confidence in the government if it was ended abruptly.

Sally Randall, Defra’s director general for biosecurity, food and trade, said in a letter to Natural England: “Those most affected by the disease must have confidence in both the process and the trajectory. Changes need to be carefully timed and communicated, whilst balancing a range of potentially opposing views. Any abrupt changes to policy would seriously undermine our ability to engage constructively with the industry on future disease control interventions.”

Brotherton said the badger population was likely to remain low for at least seven years, during which time vaccinations could be deployed to stop the spread of the disease.

He told Defra: “The balance of evidence has shifted. In my opinion it is now clear that badger vaccination can provide an effective alternative to [culls].”

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Proof the Beast of Cumbria exists?: Scientists find big cat DNA on savaged sheep in the Lake District

There have long been rumours that big cats roam the British countryside.

Blurred photographs, large inexplicable tracks and dramatic eye-witness accounts routinely add to the mystery of their existence.

But now scientists say they have found definitive proof a leopard prowls the Lake District – after they matched DNA found on a dead sheep to a non-native large feline.

Professor Robin Allaby analysed a sample taken from the sheep’s carcass and discovered ‘Panthera genus’ DNA – meaning it had to have come from a lion, leopard, tiger, jaguar or snow leopard.

He said a leopard was the most likely on British soil and that the exciting finding was the first scientific proof that large, non-native cats roam the UK.

Biologist Prof Allaby, who said he had always been ‘open-minded’ about the existence of big cats in Britain, told BBC Wildlife magazine that the results of his test had left him in no doubt there was one stalking the Cumbria countryside.

‘It makes me a convert,’ he said. ‘On the balance of probabilities, I think this is a genuine hit.’

The remains of the sheep were discovered by Cumbrian resident Sharon Larkin-Snowden in an undisclosed upland location in October.

She disturbed whatever had been feeding on the carcass and the animal ran towards a stone wall before disappearing.

‘I saw something black, running, and I assumed at first it was a sheepdog,’ she said. ‘Then I did a double take and realised it was a black cat. It ran towards a stone wall, stopped and then jumped the wall. It was big – the size of a German shepherd dog.’

Ms Larkin-Snowden took a swab of the carcass and sent it to Rick Minter, the host of the Big Cat Conversations podcast, who passed it on to Prof Allaby.

He analysed the sample at his laboratory at the University of Warwick and discovered both fox and Panthera DNA. He said the findings suggested the sheep had been eaten by both a fox and a big cat, such as a leopard.

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Canada’s Wild ‘Super Pigs’ Are About to Invade America

Canada’s wild hogs are apparently poised to invade America’s yard. In new research this month, scientists have found evidence that these invasive wild pigs have a “high potential” to cross over the Canadian border and establish new populations in mostly pig-free parts of the U.S., particularly South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota.

Despite once being mere fodder for a meme, the threat of feral and wild pigs has become larger over time. These animals have no natural predators in the areas where they’ve invaded, allowing them to quickly grow in numbers and voraciously consume a region’s native vegetation and small wildlife or farmed crops. They can also carry a variety of potentially dangerous germs and have been known to attack pets or even humans on occasion.

Feral swine have invaded much of the southern half of the U.S., and are typically a combination of escaped domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) and Eurasian wild boars (Sus scrofa). But Canada’s pig problem is uniquely terrifying. Hunters deliberately brought over wild boars to the area as livestock and controlled game during the 1980s and 1990s, but some were able to escape or were released and then mated with domestic pigs. The net result is that Canada’s wild pigs today tend to be larger and more resistant to cold than those down south, with scientists often referring to them as “super” pigs. Their size and hardiness likely also means that these pigs can easily expand their range further across North America.

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Climate Change ‘Solutions’ Are Harming the Environment

Big government environmental “fixes” often result in unintended environmental or human health consequences that are worse than the original problem the government solution was meant to solve.

Nowhere is this clearer than with government efforts to fight climate change, an effort in vain if ever there was one.

In Climate Change Weekly, I have detailed the high environmental costs and dangers to people that come with electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels — from fires, to the human and environmental impact of the mining and refining of the minerals necessary to produce and operate them, to the waste problems they create.

As whale deaths mount on the East Coast, The Heartland Institute along with our allies at CFACT and the National Legal and Policy Center have filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order on Dominion Energy’s plans to begin pile driving for construction of the base and tower portions of 176 giant offshore wind turbines it plans to erect at great economic and environmental costs off the coast of Virginia as part of President Biden’s “all of government” approach to fight climate change.

CFACT has established a great resource devoted to the myriad environmental problems — including the threat to the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW) from the push for offshore wind along the East Coast. These turbines are being erected right in the middle of NARW and other protected marine mammals’ habitat and migration routes. In the rush to erect these turbines quickly, the federal government and Dominion played fast and loose with the rules and permits, in particular failing to follow the law and proper procedures in accounting for potential comprehensive, cumulative whale impacts.

Research released after Dominion had already received permission from the federal government to proceed, shows that, contrary to what Dominion and the Biden administration have claimed in their reports, the ships contracted to do the pile driving produce an amount of noise during operations that exceeds what federal biologists have determined to be safe for whales.

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NBC Animal Documentary Claims “This is a Queer Planet”

A documentary set to be broadcast by NBC asserts that we live on a “queer planet,” in which homosexuality is widespread in the animal kingdom and there are more than two genders.

Yes, really.

The documentary, set to be aired on June 6, features one “expert” stating, “Everything you were taught as a kid is wrong.”

“Gay penguins, bisexual lions, sex changing clown fish,” the narration, voiced by gay actor Andrew Rannells, claims are all evidence that “this is a queer planet.”

The trailer then shows two women, one with blue hair, asserting that “Queerness has always existed” and that “It’s only in humans that we have such a stigma about it.”

Apparently, this “stigma” revolves around having it shoved in your face 24/7 on television, TV commercials, within the education system, and publicly shaming or even arresting and prosecuting anyone who doesn’t embrace it.

“The idea of just having two fixed sexes is clearly out of style,” the narration continues, with another short haired woman with tattoos claiming, “Mother nature is pretty open minded.”

Nature is apparently “full of queer surprises,” according to the documentary.

I’m not sure that aspiring to behave like animals is quite the win that LGBT activists think it is.

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The Eastern American Puma is Officially Declared Extinct

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has officially declared the eastern American puma (scientifically named puma concolor cougar) extinct, one of the mountain lion subspecies, after removing it from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife of extinction.

“We determined that the eastern puma has become extinct, based on the best scientific and commercial information available. This information does not show evidence of the existence of an existing breeding population or of individuals of the eastern puma subspecies, “the official said. “It is very unlikely that an eastern puma population will remain undetected since the last confirmed sighting in 1938. Therefore, under the authority of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 we eliminated this subspecies from the federal list of endangered fauna and in Danger of extinction”.

In 1973 the eastern puma of North America had been included in the list of endangered species, but in 2011 the US Fish and Wildlife Service opened an investigation into the status of this mountain lion. It was not until 2015 when experts concluded that there was no evidence that a living population of this feline remained, so that year the Federal Register published a request to exclude the animal from the list. Finally on January 23 the statement was issued where it was officially declared extinct.

Experts believe that the last population of eastern American cougars disappeared at the hands of hunters in the state of Maine in 1938. They were killed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and used to roam the forests, mountains and pastures in all US states east of Mississippi river, from Quebec (Canada) to South Carolina and from Manitoba (Canada) to Illinois. Its main prey used to be the white-tailed deer, but they also hunted eastern moose, now also extinct. In the eighty years that have passed since the last confirmed sighting, there have been some who claim to have seen them. But scientists say that it has probably been specimens from zoos and private collections.

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‘Environmental Pollutant’ – How A Key Climate Agenda Tool Harms Endangered Species

As the Biden administration expands its offshore wind projects as part of its goal to reach a carbon-free energy system, whales and other marine life may become collateral damage, according to new research.

Two independent studies measuring ocean wind turbine construction noise found that the sound emitted by vessels mapping the seafloor was significantly louder than estimated, and that noise protection for whales and other sea creatures during wind turbine pile driving doesn’t work.

Intense noise causes hearing loss in whales, other marine mammals, turtles, and fish, compromising their ability to navigate, avoid danger, detect predators, and find prey, according to scientific studies.

Robert Rand, an acoustics consultant with 44 years of experience, took underwater readings of the sonar survey vessel Miss Emma McCall off the coast of New Jersey. He also recorded acoustic readings of pile driving for Vineyards Wind 1, an offshore wind farm project under construction 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard.

In his pile-driving report, published March 28, Mr. Rand found that even the most advanced sound-dampening technologies didn’t adequately control harmful noise. The pounding was just as loud as seismic air gun arrays used for oil and gas exploration, long known to cause injury, hearing loss, and behavioral changes in fish and marine mammals.

Furthermore, the noise made by the construction vessel itself, which is not monitored, was almost as loud as the pile driving. Mr. Rand found that the standard formula used by the National Marine Fisheries Service to calculate how noise, over a period of time, affects a mammal’s hearing, significantly underestimates the sound levels experienced by dolphins and whales.

“These are real data,” Mr. Rand, who testified at a Congressional field hearing on January 20, told The Epoch Times. “I measured it. This is not a computer model. This is not a political press release. These are data.”

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New York Suffers Record Rise in Potentially Deadly Disease Caused by Rat Urine

New York City has seen a record jump in the number of human leptospirosis, a disease caused by rat urine that can cause kidney damage, liver failure, and even death.

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued an advisory on April 12, warning that the number of human leptospirosis cases continues to trend upward.

The agency said that 24 cases were reported in New York City in 2023, the highest number in a single year on record.

In fact, 6 cases have been reported so far in 2024, twice as high as the average annual number of cases between 2001 and 2020.

While human leptospirosis infections can be caused by contaminated soil and water during natural disasters like floods and hurricanes, in New York they’re mostly caused by rat urine.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic disease caused by several species of bacteria. In New York, it’s mostly associated with the Norway rat.

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