Plagues
S


Butterfly

Malaysia swarmed by giant moths

Heather Chen
BBC News
Wed, 11 Jun 2014 07:12 UTC
Moths_1
© Lim Wui LiangThe dark-coloured moths are one of the largest found in South East Asia.
Swarms of giant moths have descended on Malaysia, invading homes and even disrupting a national football match.

Thousands of the furry insects, with a wing span of up to 16cm (6in), interrupted a semi-finals match at the Darul Makmur Stadium last week.

Over 800 sightings were also reported in neighbouring Singapore last month, sparking intense online debate.

The Lyssa Zampa tropical moth, which is also known as the Laos brown butterfly, is native to South East Asia.

Biology lecturer N Sivasothi said that while the moth sightings appear to be "unprecedented", it is not a new phenomenon.

"The moths are actually present during other times of the year but in very small numbers, so they are usually not noticed by people," Mr Sivasothi said, adding that the creatures typically emerge between April and August every year.

Ecologist Anuj Jain said moths' use of light for navigation often causes them to head to built-up areas.

"Their tendency to emigrate in search of new uneaten host plants attracts these moths to light in urban city areas," he said.

Experts said that while people suffering from asthma may be sensitive to hairs on their wings, the nocturnal creatures do not pose any threat.
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Bug

Lyme disease is older than human race - 15 million-year-old bacteria found in amber-preserved ticks


Oregon State University
Thu, 29 May 2014 11:01 UTC
Lyme disease is a stealthy, often misdiagnosed disease that was only recognized about 40 years ago, but new discoveries of ticks fossilized in amber show that the bacteria which cause it may have been lurking around for 15 million years - long before any humans walked on Earth.

The findings were made by researchers from Oregon State University, who studied 15-20 million-year-old amber from the Dominican Republic that offer the oldest fossil evidence ever found of Borrelia, a type of spirochete-like bacteria that to this day causes Lyme disease. They were published in the journal Historical Biology.

In a related study, published in Cretaceous Research, OSU scientists announced the first fossil record of Rickettsial-like cells, a bacteria that can cause various types of spotted fever. Those fossils from Myanmar were found in ticks about 100 million years old.
lyme disease fossilized ticks
Tick preserved in amber
As summer arrives and millions of people head for the outdoors, it's worth considering that these tick-borne diseases may be far more common than has been historically appreciated, and they've been around for a long, long time.

"Ticks and the bacteria they carry are very opportunistic," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor emeritus in the Department of Integrative Biology of the OSU College of Science, and one of the world's leading experts on plant and animal life forms found preserved in amber. "They are very efficient at maintaining populations of microbes in their tissues, and can infect mammals, birds, reptiles and other animals.

"In the United States, Europe and Asia, ticks are a more important insect vector of disease than mosquitos," Poinar said. "They can carry bacteria that cause a wide range of diseases, affect many different animal species, and often are not even understood or recognized by doctors.
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Question

Mysterious virus outbreak worries Australian doctors


9 News MSN
Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:46 UTC
Parechovirus
© American Society for MicrobiologyThree-dimensional structure of human parechovirus 1 interacting with integrin αVβ6 receptor molecules. The structure, obtained by electron cryomicroscopy and image reconstruction, reveals the interaction of integrins (shown in red) via the RGD sequence in viral protein 1. The sequences in the background are a portion of the amino acid sequence alignment of the viral coat protein VP1 from different picornaviruses.
Professor Theo Sloots says 46 babies are infected with parechovirus, which has spread to Queensland. At least 11 cases have been confirmed in the state since December.

"The outbreak is Australia-wide now and we believe there are at least four types of the virus," the Queensland Paediatric Infectious Diseases (QPID) laboratory director told reporters in Brisbane.

"We don't know what type is in Queensland compared to other states."

Parechovirus is a respiratory and intestinal disease that causes fever, irritability, rash and diarrhoea, but severe cases can develop into hepatitis or encephalitis.

QPID Associate Professor Michael Nissen said the virus infected mainly infants, but no one was sure where it came from, how often it occurred or how to fight it.

"This virus does not respond to common antibiotics," he said.
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Bizarro Earth

Albuquerque grasshopper swarms so dense they show up on radar

Dina Abou Salem
ABC News
Mon, 02 Jun 2014 15:11 UTC
Grasshopper Swarm
© National Weather ServiceGrasshopper infestation is so dense around Albuquerque, N.M., they show up on weather radar like rain.
The worst grasshopper infestation in 20 years has become so thick around Albuquerque, N.M., that the airborne bugs are showing up on weather radar, officials said today.

"Albuquerque has not seen these levels of grasshoppers since the early-mid 1990′s," said John R. Garlisch, extension agent at Bernalillo County Cooperative Extension Service.

The National Weather Service said the air is so dense with the bugs that they appear on its radar like rain.

"We have actually been noticing the insects on radar since about Memorial Day," said NWS spokesman David Craft. "We have noticed the greatest impact on the radar during the evening, but they are noticeable at other times of the day, too."

"It is a nuisance to people because they fly into people's faces while walking, running, and biking. They are hopping into people's homes and garages, they splatter the windshield and car grill while driving, and they will eat people's plants," Garlisch said.
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Health

Ebola cases rise in West Africa

JC Finley
UPI
Fri, 30 May 2014 22:31 UTC
Image
© unknown
The World Health Organization provided an update Friday regarding the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa.

Ten new cases and seven deaths from the virus were reported in Guinea since Wednesday, adding to the 291 reported cases and 193 deaths.

In Sierra Leone, the 50 total cases includes 34 new cases reported on Thursday. Six people have died from Ebola.

An individual suspected of being infected with Ebola died on Thursday in Liberia. The body was sent to Sierra Leone for burial. Officials from both Liberia and Sierra Leone are investigating the case.
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Health

Ebola outbreak spreads to Sierra Leone, 5 dead


RT
Mon, 26 May 2014 22:49 UTC
Image
© wikipediaEbola virus virion
Five people died in Sierra Leone's first confirmed outbreak of Ebola virus, according to the World Health Organization.The death toll from the epidemic in West Africa reaches 190,despite regional officials' claims that it has been brought under control.

"I can categorically confirm that the Ebola sickness has materialized," health ministry official Amara Jambai said on Monday.

"Preliminary information received from the field indicates that one laboratory-confirmed case and five community deaths have been reported from Koindu chiefdom," the World Health Organization (WHO) also said in a statement on its website.

This chiefdom shares a border with the current Ebola virus disease hotspot Guéckédou in Guinea.

Several suspected cases of Ebola, a haemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent, were earlier registered in Sierra Leone, but they tested negative.

The WHO has deployed six international experts to the area with essential supplies and reagents.

However, the health watchdog noted that it does not yet recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied to Sierra Leone.
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Health

Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over worldwide rise of drug-resistant TB

Meera Senthilingam
CNN
Wed, 28 May 2014 06:56 UTC
Image
© WHOMan being treated for Tuberculosis in India

"Sometimes I ask myself, why me? Why did this have to happen again?" says 31-year-old Andile from the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, South Africa. "But the problem is I could have got it anywhere, on the bus, in a taxi, in my work. It's everywhere."

Andile has extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a form of the airborne disease that is resistant to the four main groups of drugs used to treat it, meaning treatment can take years and requires alternative drugs that have more side effects.

He's had tuberculosis for more than two years but it's not the first time he's been infected.

"Where I stay, the environment is not right, it's not clean. I could have got TB there, or on the taxis we use as they never open the windows," he says.

TB has long been known as a disease of poverty. Dense housing, shared living space, poor ventilation, poor nutrition and poor healthcare systems are the prime conditions for the infection to spread, and thrive. This ancient disease was known as the "White Plague" in 18th century Europe and still kills more than one million people a year globally.

Comment: Could natural cures including a ketogenic diet help prevent or ameliorate the ravages of TB? See also:

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Beaker

Scientific virus experiments risk decimating mankind

L.J. Devon
Natural News
Mon, 26 May 2014 17:32 UTC
science experiment
Is a viral pandemic capable of emerging from a laboratory? New Harvard and Yale research suggests that a new viral outbreak is inevitable within the next 10 years, and it may accidentally be derived from laboratories. As scientists experiment with viruses to develop new vaccines, it may only be a matter of time before the inevitable occurs.

Scientific communities around the world are racing against the clock to alter and even create virus strains, as they study viral evolution and immunology. Two studies released in 2012 basically published a recipe for mutant bird flu, which can be passed from ferrets to humans. This brings up the possibility that viruses may one day fall into the wrong hands and be intentionally released onto groups of unsuspecting people. Devious scientists may want to see how these new mutant virus strains spread in real time.
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Coffee

Prices skyrocket as fungus kills high-end coffee beans


RT
Mon, 19 May 2014 20:19 UTC
coffee bean fungus on leaves
© colombiareports.coCoffee industry's foe: leaf rust
If you've noticed the cost of a cup of coffee at your local shop has been inching up lately, it's because a fungus has decimated Central America's Arabica bean crop. Now the US is stepping in to try to eliminate the deadly coffee rust fungus.

Leaf rust, or la roya in Spanish, is a yellow- and orange-colored, plant-choking fungus that has devastated coffee crops from Peru to Mexico over the past three years, costing $1 billion in damages in Central America in the late harvest season of 2012 alone. The fungus is especially ruinous to the Arabica bean, which is used in higher-end coffees, as it is said to produce better-tasting coffee than the other major commercially grown coffee species. It contains less caffeine but a more robust flavor. Arabica accounts for 75 to 80 percent of the world's coffee production, according to the Coffee Research Institute.

The effects of leaf rust have decimated local economies.
"Big farmers hire fewer workers to pick the ripe coffee cherries that enclose the beans. Smaller farmers go into debt and sell livestock or tools to make up for the lost income. Sales fall at local merchants," the New York Times reported. "Teenagers leave school to work on the farm because their parents can no longer hire outside help. At the very end of the chain are the landless migrant workers who earn just a few dollars a day."
Central America has been particularly hard hit. Four million people there and in southern Mexico rely on coffee for their living, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. In Guatemala, twenty percent of the half-million jobs directly tied to growing coffee have already disappeared, estimated Nils Leporowski, the president of Anacafé, the country's coffee board.

Comment: In Colombia, unusual rainy weather in 2008 fueled an outbreak of rust that later grew into an epidemic. If roya is detected on more than half of a tree's leaves, the tree has to be cut off at the stump and will not produce beans for three years. The rust is a microorganism that must take energy and nutrients from a specific live host and thereby produces thousands of tiny spores that can travel in water, rain, or air and remain viable for long distances. Coffee rust must find a coffee host in order to complete its cycle. The rust pathogen impacts photosynthesis which provides energy to the plant for food production. Currently there are over 45 varieties of coffee rust. The shift to a high density monoculture and lagging research has aided this problem and, so far, is attempting to be cured primarily by metallic fungicides, limited in capacity and detrimental to the environment. Are we surprised?

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Bizarro Earth

Massive number of dead fishes in New Jersey river


CBS2 NewYork
Mon, 12 May 2014 22:50 UTC

New York - Possibly tens of thousands of fish have died in Belmar, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said. Footage from Chopper 2 showed thousands of dead fish in Shark River near the docks in Belmar on Monday. The DEP believes the fish kill is a result of natural causes, the remnants of a massive influx that came into the estuary overnight, CBS 2′s Lou Young reported.

"They were here last night. Biggest School I've ever seen," fishing boat captain George Stella said.

Initially, heavy rains were thought to be the cause of the massive kill.

Recent heavy rains were believed to have caused the water to churn, stirring up the sediment at the bottom of the river, the DEP told CBS 2. This could have caused algae to bloom after recent warm weather. The algae could have starved the water of oxygen, resulting in the death of the fish, the DEP said. However, that scenario now seems less likely as subsequent testing determined that oxygen levels in the water were normal, and no algae or chemicals were found.
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