Arizona Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have determined Mexican wolf conservation efforts will be focused south of the I-40 corridor.
PHOENIX — The latest international research study on Mexican wolves says that encouraging recovery of the endangered subspecies north of its outlined historical range would be detrimental to preserving the wolf’s unique characteristics.
The leading wildlife science journal Biological Conservation recently highlighted the new research, further rebuking calls for Mexican wolves to be released far outside their historical range, defined as southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. Doing so would encourage genetic mixing with northwestern wolves originally from Canada, which threatens the genetic uniqueness of the Mexican wolf.
“The latest science clearly shows that Mexican wolf dispersal outside the species’ historical range before…
A highly infectious bird flu has caused the deaths of 37 million birds in the U.S.
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona officials have confirmed the first cases in the Southwest of a bird flu that has led to the deaths of 37 million birds from commercial farms in the central and eastern U.S.
The disease was spotted after tests by federal wildlife officials in three wild cormorants that had been found dead in a park in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona Game and Fish officials announced this week.
Bird Flu Arizona FILE – A bird lands on the top of the net behind home plate during a spring training baseball game between the Colorado Rockies and the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Phoenix. Arizona officials have confirmed the first cases in the Southwest of a bird flu that has led to the deaths of 37 million birds from commercial farms in the central and eastern U.S. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File) (Ashley Landis)
PHOENIX — (AP) — Arizona officials have confirmed the first cases in the Southwest of a bird flu that has led to the deaths of 37 million birds from commercial farms in the central and eastern U.S.
The disease was spotted after tests by federal wildlife officials in three wild cormorants that had been found dead in a park in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale, Arizona Game and Fish officials announced this week.
The disease has not yet been found in any domestic birds or in commercial operations, the agency said.
But it is a concern, according to Glenn Hickman, president and CEO of Hickman Family Farms, one of the largest egg producers in the Southwest. Hickman operates four chicken ranches in Arizona, one in California and two in Colorado.
The company has stopped any visits to its farms and doublechecked its biosecurity program, which is designed to prevent its approximately 2 million chickens from being infected. Its chickens are kept in barns that are secured so that wild birds can’t enter, and any people or tools that enter are disinfected.
The company dodged a scare recently when the avian flu was found in a flock 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from one of its Colorado farms, Hickman said Thursday. And while he’s concerned about the Scottsdale find, its not anywhere near as concerning as if a nearby commercial operation had an outbreak.
“Those are a lot scarier because the massive amount of virus that is potentially produced when you have a large population is much more than the relatively small amount of virus per bird in the wild bird population,” he said. None of his farms were affected.
Arizona Game and Fish officials have been closely monitoring for the disease, which had been no closer than Colorado before this week’s announcement, by responding to all calls of dead birds.
Anne Justice-Allen, the department’s wildlife veterinarian, said calls from the public alerted her agency to the dead cormorants, water-loving birds that often nest in groups. The three juveniles had fallen out of their nests and were spotted dead by morning walkers in the park, who called wildlife officials.
“It’s a good thing they did,” Justice-Allen said, because they were able to collect the birds and test them before park workers removed them.
“We had a high suspicion that it was something that we do not normally see,” Justice-Allen said. “We have resident cormorants in the area, and we do not normally see mortality events in them.”
Justice-Allen said a major concern is backyard flocks of chickens, which are allowed in parts of metro Phoenix. The disease has been found in many homeowner flocks across the country.
Bird owners should watch for symptoms like birds not eating or lethargy, runny noses, seizures or diarrhea, she said. Anyone seeing those symptoms should call the state Department of Agriculture.
As of June 3, it had been detected in wild birds in 40 states, but not in California, Arizona, Nevada or New Mexico. Commercial flocks in 19 states have been infected.
Once an infection is found, the birds won’t recover and are killed to prevent spreading the illness, Justice-Allen said.
The outbreak has not only killed domestic fowl. It has also had a heavy toll on bald eagles and other wild bird species, much more so than the nation’s last bird flu outbreak detected in 2014. That outbreak cost more than 50 million domestic poultry.
Hickman said egg producers are so far making up for lost production from outbreaks affecting flocks this year.
“I think I can speak pretty firmly that regardless of how many birds that have been affected and depopulated, there are still eggs on every shelf in every grocery store in America,” Hickman said.
A vegan diet consists entirely of plant-based foods
Plant-based diets can help address a variety of health issues, according to a new expert commentary.
Eating more plants and less animal products may help manage weight and blood sugar.
Nutrients in plants can also help prevent chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease.
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A plant-based diet might help improve health by managing weight and preventing illness, and doctors should take note, according to a commentary published May 26 in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
Doctors with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization of health experts advocating for vegan diets, wrote in the commentary that medical experts should be more aware of the evidence-based benefits of diets rich in plant foods like greens, beans, fruits, and nuts.
Plant-based diets may be especially helpful for six common health concerns, research suggests, ranging from cancer and cognitive decline to weight management and stable blood sugar.
Low-calorie plant foods may aid weight loss
Eating a mostly vegan diet could help you maintain a healthy weight, according to the commentary. The authors cite a 2013 study of more than 70,000 people which found vegans tended to weigh nearly 10 pounds less, on average, than their omnivorous peers.
Fiber in plant foods could help prevent cancer, too
Fiber is an important nutrient for long-term health and disease prevention, according to the commentary, and plant-based diets have been linked to lower risk of breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and prostate cancer.
Fiber slows the digestion and absorption of glucose as your body breaks down carbohydrates for energy, which helps prevent dips and spikes in blood sugar, dietitians previously told Insider.
As a result, plant foods may also help people who have diabetes manage their blood sugar too, research suggests.
Nutrient-dense plants could protect brain health as you age
The vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients in plant foods could also stave off cognitive decline, evidence suggests. A 2020 study found that combined with other healthy lifestyle factors, eating more vegetables, grains, and legumes was linked to significantly lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Plant foods tend to be low in cholesterol and saturated fat, both of which have been linked to risks for heart health.
Some evidence suggests plant-based diets are linked to lower risk of COVID complications
More research is needed, but the health benefits of eating plants may be protective against the pandemic, according to the commentary. Healthy plant-based diets were linked to significantly lower risk of severe coronavirus infection, one 2021 study found.
Cumberland officials recently scrapped a plan to trap beavers. (istock)
CUMBERLAND, R.I. — A town plan to trap “nuisance” beavers to reduce the flooding they cause has been halted after a town official learned the captured animals would be killed.
Mayor Jeff Mutter said the town stopped trapping beavers after a newsarticleon the plan was published May 19, and he became aware the beavers would be killed and not relocated.
“We suspended the activity the very next day,” Mutter said. He explained that at the time of approving the action, he didn’t realize state law required trapped beavers be killed unless they were released back into the same area.
“I should have been aware,” he said. When the article was published, two individuals reached out to him about the lethal action, and the trapping was immediately…
Zachary’s Mo Vo tends several rods set out with baits Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020 on the pond at BREC’s Burbank Park, after the pond was stocked earlier that morning with approximately 400 pounds of rainbow trout. Stocking at seven community ponds across the state was done as part of the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries’ ‘Get Out and Fish!’ program. The six other parks included Lafayette’s Girard Park (200 pounds), Walker’s Sidney Hutchinson Park (200 pounds), Hammond’s Zemurray Park (300 pounds), New Orleans’ Joe W. Brown Park (500 pounds), Jennings’ Oil & Gas Park (500 pounds) and Youngsville’s Southside Regional Park (200 pounds). An additional 2,100 pounds of trout were stocked in other ponds throughout the state Tuesday. The fish, which are frequently disoriented after the trip to a new…
Photo courtesy of Taichung City Police Department’s Dajia Precinct
Taichung, June 8 (CNA) A Thai man handed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for constructing a homemade firearm from old shovels, scrap metal, and pipes said he made the weapon in order to hunt for food, according to the Taichung District Court Wednesday.
According to the verdict issued by the court, the man, a migrant worker from Thailand, was arrested on Sept. 7, 2021, after authorities found him shooting birds by an embankment in Taichung’s Da’an District.
Police then confiscated the man’s homemade firearm, as well as gunpowder, and metal pellets he was using as ammunition.
The verdict said that the worker had assembled the firearm from shovels, discarded metal pieces, and pipes in his dormitory.
In his defense, the man said he had been using the weapon to hunt for food, with his lawyer citing the…
In the first Endangered Species Act (ESA) interpretive rule produced under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to revisesection 10(j) regulationsunder the ESA to better facilitate recovery by allowing for the introduction of listed species to suitable habitats outside of their historical ranges. The proposed change will help improve the conservation and recovery of imperiled ESA-listed species in the coming decades, as growing impacts fromclimate changeandinvasive speciescause habitats within their historical ranges to shift and become unsuitable.
Reintroducing species of plants and animals back into areas where they have disappeared has been a regularly used technique in wildlife conservation for decades, and federal agencies were authorized by Congress to create experimental populations to aid in that…
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