Or, how two “great sparrow bees” incited a national hunt for alleged Chinese alien invaders BLAINE, Washington––How did the Asian giant hornet, known for centuries in Japan as the “great sparrow bee,” generally regarded as beneficial to farmers for killing insect pests, suddenly become feared in the U.S. as the so-called “murder hornet”? After […]
Mouse studies often don’t work, NIH admits after landmark 10-year study
National Institutes of Health finding in 2013 presaged Wellcome Foundation decision to close the Sanger Institute genetically modified mouse lab by 2022 WASHINGTON D.C. (March 2013)–– Bluntly stated the headline in the February 11, 2013 edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “Genomic responses in mouse models poorly mimic human inflammatory diseases.” Echoing […]
Yellow fever mosquitoes now killing at 10 times the rate of pit bulls
Monkey killings contribute to disease outbreak death tolls in Brazil & India RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil; SINGHUDURG, India––Panic-driven monkey massacres are contributing to human illness and death, with yellow fever deaths up 60% since the end of fiscal 2017, and could help to spark global epidemics, warn Brazilian health officials. More than 718 Brazilians […]
Jack Woodall, 81, the James Bond of animal/human disease prevention
Cofounder of ProMED-mail LONDON, U.K.––Jack Woodall, 81, perhaps the most influential person in the animal welfare field whose name almost no one involved in animal welfare recognized, whose work helped to save countless human and animal lives, died on October 24, 2016 in London, England, where he was under treatment for pancreatic cancer. Cofounder […]
A 21-vaccination salute to the founders of ProMED
Editorial by Merritt Clifton Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases cofounder Jack Woodall and Martin Hugh-Jones, who was among the ProMED founding moderators, have been separately selected to receive two of the highest honors in veterinary epidemiology. Hugh-Jones is on July 15, 2016 to receive an honorary fellowship from the British Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Woodall […]
More medical warnings link dog meat to rabies
MANILA––Philippine, Chinese, and international public health media in mid-March 2015 warned that eating dogs can spread rabies, after at least 13 people ate meat from a rabid dog in Cabatangan village, Zamboanga, the Philippines. Summarized Robert Herriman of Outbreak News Today on March 15, 2015, from reports published on March 14, 2015 by Philippine media […]
Global response to ANIMALS 24-7 debut
ANIMALS 24-7 officially launched at 2:27 a.m. on April 12, 2014. Reader response began arriving from around the world just nine minutes later. From India: Great effort, Merritt! All my best wishes, as always. ––Debasis Chakrabarti, founder, Compassionate Crusaders Trust, Kolkata, India <animalcrusader@gmail.com> Editor’s note: Debasis Chakrabarti’s 2003 […]