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Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
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Dingos Have Great Immunity
- Dr. Herbert H. Nehrlich (26 November 2005)
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Re: Dingos Have Great Immunity
- Peter J Miles (29 November 2005)
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Dr. Herbert H. Nehrlich, Private Practice Bribie Island, Australia 4507
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Yes, I can see that the incidence of disease is growing. What I don't believe is that we are justified to blame wildlife. I understand that several jurisdictions already have plans to "hide" their fowl indoors (perhaps the bathtub) in order to minimise the threat of infection. Wildlife as reservoirs/vectors. What is this world coming to? Perhaps the wild salmon are also infecting the ones in the fish farms! I wonder if there is a chance that the crowded, actually often atrocious conditions that animals are kept in, not only chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks but other domestic animals as well could have something to do with the emergence of these "new" illnesses? From my experience it has always been man who causes most of his own problems through greed and uninformed arrogance . What is rather new though is the practice of scaremongering which is shown currently by the focus on Avian Influenza. A pandemic of the bird flu is coming and the earth is definitely flat. Although I do admit it is rather clever when one can extract profit out of self-caused disasters. Competing interests: None declared |
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Peter J Miles, Project Managment Guelph, Canada, N1K 1A5
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I wonder if Dr. Nehrlich, in Australia is aware of the current issue with salmon farming in the river estuaries on the Canadian Pacific coast. He wonders if wild salmon are infecting the farmed fish when the exact opposite is the case. The high density of atlantic salmon in the fish pens has contributed to localised population explosions of sea lice. This particularly ugly parasite is found throughout the world but wild species did not seem to be significantly affected by it until the fish pens appeared. The fish pens have become huge reservoirs of these parasites simply because of the concentration of fish with no means of escape. Twice a year the wild pacific salmon have to "run the gauntlet" past the pens both, on their way up river to spawn and when the hatchlings come down river to the sea. The hatchlings are particularly vulnerable being too small to fight off such voracious parasites. Many of them die, which results in a much reduced population of wild fish. The wild salmon fishing industry has been very heavily hit. This is just another example of what the editorial's author says is the "human encroachment into, and modification of, wildlife habitat." But where the author points to speed of trade and travel as the resons for the increase in infections, it is clear that un-natural concentrations of species is another major factor. Competing interests: None declared |
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