Elkhunter
New member
Oryx virus may threaten N.M. wildlife
Associated Press — March 31, 2004
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — They're big and strong and fast and mean, bred as they are to survive on the grasslands of Africa. Now oryxes, which assert supremacy at the waterholes of southern New Mexico and multiply like rabbits, show signs of viruses that may threaten other wildlife.
"I always liken them to the creature in the 'Alien' flicks — so adapted at being a survivor," said Lou Bender, lead researcher on two recent New Mexico oryx studies that have appeared in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
The interloping antelope, introduced here from Africa decades ago, have been known to bully other wildlife, such as deer and desert bighorn sheep, away from native watering places.
Hunters love their long, straight, saber-like trophy horns, and state Game and Fish Department Director Bruce Thompson says it's too soon to sound the alarm on the oryx.
More studies are needed to know how serious a threat their viruses may be.
The Game and Fish Department introduced 93 captive-bred oryx, also called gemsbok, onto the White Sands Missile Range in the 1960s and 1970s as a hunting option.
Now there are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000, and they have long since spilled across the missile range boundaries onto neighboring ranch lands and beyond.
"We've had oryx as far north as Belen [south of Albuquerque]. They're in Texas now," said Pat Mathis, southwest area game manager for Game and Fish. "They're able to forage more efficiently than deer or antelope. They get by with a poorer-quality diet. They do very well in a drought situation."
Bender, assistant leader with the U.S. Geological Survey's wildlife research unit at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, said most of the plant families oryxes encounter in New Mexico also exist in Africa.
The oryx, which weighs 475 to 500 pounds when mature, is very aggressive and combative, he said.
"I guess that's what happens when you grow up being hunted by lions — the real lions, not our mountain lions," Bender said.
For their oryx study published late last year, researchers captured dozens of the animals using a helicopter and tranquilizer darts.
They took blood and other samples and found several specimens that had a never-before-seen virus, from the same family as a disease known as malignant catarrhal fever.
Classic malignant catarrhal fever is "almost 100 percent fatal" in deer and elk but is very difficult to transmit to those animals, Bender said. Researchers don't yet know if the White Sands oryx version can be transmitted to other animals or is harmful to other species, he said.
Researchers also discovered antibodies to three other potentially serious viruses in oryx tests, showing exposure to the diseases. Those three viruses also occur in native deer and bighorn sheep, and researchers are concerned that oryx could be "amplifying hosts," boosting the prevalence of disease there.
Researchers must now determine if oryx are carriers. Pat Mathis, southwest area game manager for Game and Fish. "They're able to forage more efficiently than deer or antelope.
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/news/2004/0331/1772796.html
Associated Press — March 31, 2004
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M. — They're big and strong and fast and mean, bred as they are to survive on the grasslands of Africa. Now oryxes, which assert supremacy at the waterholes of southern New Mexico and multiply like rabbits, show signs of viruses that may threaten other wildlife.
"I always liken them to the creature in the 'Alien' flicks — so adapted at being a survivor," said Lou Bender, lead researcher on two recent New Mexico oryx studies that have appeared in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases.
The interloping antelope, introduced here from Africa decades ago, have been known to bully other wildlife, such as deer and desert bighorn sheep, away from native watering places.
Hunters love their long, straight, saber-like trophy horns, and state Game and Fish Department Director Bruce Thompson says it's too soon to sound the alarm on the oryx.
More studies are needed to know how serious a threat their viruses may be.
The Game and Fish Department introduced 93 captive-bred oryx, also called gemsbok, onto the White Sands Missile Range in the 1960s and 1970s as a hunting option.
Now there are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000, and they have long since spilled across the missile range boundaries onto neighboring ranch lands and beyond.
"We've had oryx as far north as Belen [south of Albuquerque]. They're in Texas now," said Pat Mathis, southwest area game manager for Game and Fish. "They're able to forage more efficiently than deer or antelope. They get by with a poorer-quality diet. They do very well in a drought situation."
Bender, assistant leader with the U.S. Geological Survey's wildlife research unit at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, said most of the plant families oryxes encounter in New Mexico also exist in Africa.
The oryx, which weighs 475 to 500 pounds when mature, is very aggressive and combative, he said.
"I guess that's what happens when you grow up being hunted by lions — the real lions, not our mountain lions," Bender said.
For their oryx study published late last year, researchers captured dozens of the animals using a helicopter and tranquilizer darts.
They took blood and other samples and found several specimens that had a never-before-seen virus, from the same family as a disease known as malignant catarrhal fever.
Classic malignant catarrhal fever is "almost 100 percent fatal" in deer and elk but is very difficult to transmit to those animals, Bender said. Researchers don't yet know if the White Sands oryx version can be transmitted to other animals or is harmful to other species, he said.
Researchers also discovered antibodies to three other potentially serious viruses in oryx tests, showing exposure to the diseases. Those three viruses also occur in native deer and bighorn sheep, and researchers are concerned that oryx could be "amplifying hosts," boosting the prevalence of disease there.
Researchers must now determine if oryx are carriers. Pat Mathis, southwest area game manager for Game and Fish. "They're able to forage more efficiently than deer or antelope.
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/conservation/news/2004/0331/1772796.html
There's very few good reasons to introduce exotics...
