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In the News

An African elephant with birds hitching a ride coming towards the photographer

A massive die-off of the endangered species has been happening in sub-Saharan Africa since 2020. Until now, the culprit was unknown. A new study has shown the cause to be a bacterium not previously found in elephants of any species, called Bisgaard taxon 45, that causes septicemia.

For Your Information

This study led by Cornell researchers provides an overview of important toxicants to which honey bees are exposed; behavioral, husbandry, and external environmental factors influencing exposure; impacts of toxicant exposure on individual bee and colony health; and the convergent impacts of stress, nutrition, infectious disease, and toxicant exposures on colony health.
Krysten Schuler, director of the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab, looks on as pathologist Gavin Hitchener performs a necropsy on a bald eagle by Noël Heaney.

State agencies are stepping up education and outreach to promote voluntary adoption of non-lead alternatives, acting on recommendations from their Lead Ammunition Working Group, a multidisciplinary partnership that includes the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab.
Members of the wildlife hospital in PPE shown treating a swan.

While avian influenza has affected multiple bird populations and a range of mammal species across the world, the Cornell Janet L. Swanson Wildlife Hospital has optimized its use of clinical medicine, practical precautions, and collaboration to effectively manage the risk of disease transmission among birds in the hospital, and from birds to mammals, including humans.
Honey bee on milkweed by Christine Bogdanowicz.

Led by Cornell's Dr. Karyn Bischoff, an analysis of beeswax in managed honeybee hives in New York finds a wide variety of insecticide, herbicide and fungicide residues, exposing current and future generations of bees to long-term toxicity.
A whale calf’s entangled flipper and how tightly wrapped the line is.

For my last summer before clinical rotations, I wanted to gain experience with marine animals. I was accepted as an intern with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Marine Mammal Rescue & Research (MMRR) program in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a unique geographical area where tides and coastlines can suddenly trap a dolphin or whale in inches of water....
Earth as a virus Image by Miroslava Chrienova from Pixabay

Flu viruses and coronavirus started the last few pandemics. Could the next one be a paramyxovirus? Cornell's Dr. Raina Plowright weighs in on the risks.
Red fox family standing in front of an old barn by Christine Bogdanowicz

For Your Information

This new paper by Cornell researchers presents background and commentary focusing on companion and peri-domestic animals as disease risk for humans, taking into account the human-animal interface and population dynamics between the animals themselves.
A NY State beekeeper shown tending to his beehives.

For Your Information

In this study led by Cornell's Dr. Karyn Bischoff, researchers found pesticide contamination of beeswax in New York State's beekeeping industry to be common, with commercial beekeepers experiencing the greatest contamination.
Virus image from Pixabay

Announcement

Cornell's Dr. Raina Plowright will be serving as a co-chair of a new Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover, convened by The Lancet and the Coalition for Preventing Pandemics at the Source.