Dutch H5N1 Flu researchers Eager to Restart their Hybridisation work

After six months of dispute, research in the Netherlands that made a deadly H5N1 flu airborne will be published this week. The scientists behind it now want to get on with their work – but they can't.

In December 2011, a US biosecurity committee advised against publishing the research, fearing it was "dual-use research of concern" (DURC) – done for noble reasons, but dangerous if pathogens escaped or if bioterrorists obtained them. Most committee members changed their minds in April, and approved publication.

But in January, before that turnaround, the world's top flu labs declared a moratorium on any further such research in a bid to calm the situation. "Now, we don't know under what conditions we can lift the moratorium," says Ab Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, where the research was done.

In theory they can at any time, because the agreement was voluntary. The problem, says Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that any similar research done before ground rules for DURC are clarified could run into a similar dispute over publishing.

The US hastily published a new DURC policy in March. It says that if work with any of 15 pathogens increases virulence, transmission, hosts or resistance to defences, researchers must apply a mitigation plan to be agreed by relevant authorities. 

This may include increased containment, changing the experiment, withholding results, classifying the work under secrecy rules – or just not doing it.

A further plan will be published soon, says Fauci. It will flesh out what risks are unacceptable and how to mitigate them, and draw up a committee from US government agencies to apply the rules.

Some researchers welcome the move. "The policy adds another layer of oversight to make sure that all angles have been discussed before and after an experiment with potential dual use," says Adolfo García-Sastre at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Others fear trouble. Ron Fouchier, who led the Dutch work on H5N1, says the Dutch authorities are happy with his biocontainment precautions, but a US committee is re-examining them under the new DURC rules. 

He worries that pathogen research could simply leave the US. Fouchier thinks researchers and authorities should discuss safety while planning research – and that it should apply to more than the 15 pathogens.

"We need international guidelines on how to decide who can do what, based on the risks and benefits of the research," says Osterhaus. At the moment, he adds, not even bio-containment labs are standardised. He has asked the European Commission to get involved.

The World Health Organization will publish new guidelines on biosafety in coming weeks, and plans a global meeting on DURC issues next year.

David Heymann, chairman of the UK Health Protection Agency, agrees that global standards are needed.

"Stronger regulations are easy, but they're false security, as they either are not enforced, or affect law-abiding scientists but not rogues," he says. What will work, he adds, is if scientists agree on how to do research safely – and enforce this through peer pressure.

Pollution endangers Rare Chinese white dolphin: DNA bank

An endangered Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis chinensis) swims off the coast of Hong Kong in August 2011.

A Hong Kong conservation group has set up a DNA bank for the rare Chinese white dolphin, also known as the pink dolphin, in a bid to save the mammals facing a sharp population decline.

There are about 2,500 Chinese white dolphins in the busy insutrialised Pearl River Delta region, the body of water between Macau and Hong Kong, with the majority of the mammals in Chinese waters and the rest in Hong Kong.

But experts say their number has dropped significantly in the past few years due to overfishing, an increase in maritime traffic, water pollution, habitat loss and coastal development.

In a bid to save the dwindling population, the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong said it had joined hands with a Chinese university to set up a DNA bank, which will also spearhead a genetic research project.

"We hope to offer the scientific community a standardised genetic analysis platform to assess the sustainability of Chinese white dolphin populations," Judy Chen, the foundation chairwoman said in a statement.

"The collected data will provide important reference to governments in the region for developing critical strategies of Chinese white dolphin conservation," she added.

The biological samples of these dolphins will be sent to the DNA bank to investigate the environmental impacts on the mammal, the statement said.

The Chinese white dolphins, a sub-species of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, are unique for their pink skin. They are listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The mammal was the official mascot at the handover ceremony when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, while dolphin watching is a favourite tourist attraction in Hong Kong.

Its population in Hong Kong has dropped from an estimated 158 in 2003 to only 75 in 2010, according to the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society.

The Finless porpoise - Neophocaena phocaenoides

You are probably aware of most river dolphins but today it's time to learn more about the lesser known 'river pig' or finless porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides).

The charming finless porpoise is very much a coastal species, predominantly found in salt water areas of the Indo-Pacific region. However, a small and endangered population of the porpoise inhabits the infamous Yangtze River and its tributaries.

Very little is known of the species, as is common with most of the cetaceans covered in this series of blogs, but the plight of the baiji (Yangtze river dolphin) from the Yangtze River has drawn obvious attention towards the oddly named “river pig”.

As its name suggests, it is the "finless" porpoise

Much debate has occurred over recent years over the genetic distinction of a number of sub-species of finless porpoise. Many populations are geographically isolated and this has led to the rise of the currently recognised three sub-species. Of which, the Chinese population of freshwater dwelling porpoises is one – Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis.

As with other species of porpoise, N. phocaenoides is not known to be overly acrobatic and shies away from boats and human disturbance. The tragedy of the Yangtze River population is that the levels of human disturbance and boat traffic in the region are so high that many individuals now readily approach boats. They have therefore become more vulnerable to the usual suspects of by-catch in fishing gear and direct boat collision.

Unfortunately, their ‘cute’ looks and approachable behaviour have also led to the river population being exploited for the aquarium trade. In conjunction with all the same impacts that pushed the baiji to extinction in recent years, this represents some the most irresponsible of practices the aquarium trade takes part in worldwide.

The finless porpoise is one of the only species of cetacean not to have a dorsal fin.

However, the lack of action and consequent tragic loss of the baiji has spurned more rapid action in conserving the finless porpoise population of the Yangtze River. The Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve, an area of wetland in the Yangtze basin near Shishou City, was originally intended for the baiji.

More recently it has been adopted as a ‘safe haven’ for the finless porpoise in which 28 individuals live. Chinese conservationists wish to follow this example, in the fight to conserve the river dwelling populations, by using other sanctuaries and reserves that were previously set up for the baiji.

The Tian-e-Zhou population is by no means a strong population and with the only other ‘stronghold’ of finless porpoises in China (in Poyang Lake) coming under threat from dredging activities, their future looks bleak.

Chinese conservationists have, however, insisted that the population can be saved if sufficient action is taken immediately. Sand dredging in Poyang Lake has provided a quick and sizeable cash injection into the area.

Whilst the lake holds a quarter of all finless porpoises found in China, the boats are the primary cause of an extremely high porpoise death toll. If sufficient protection is put in place for the porpoises and the dredging activities are more strictly controlled, the future of the Poyang finless porpoises may well be restored.

As with many other species of cetacean, their future may rely on tourist revenue replacing the income streams created from the impacting practices, such as sand dredging and fishing.

New species of fox found in California

New species of fox found in California

A subspecies of red fox (Vulpes vulpes) living in California's Sacramento Valley - long believed to be a non-native pest - is in fact native to the area, scientists say.

For almost 100 years the red foxes were thought to have escaped from fur farms and hunting parties in the 1900s, but they're actually genetically different than non-native foxes elsewhere in California, The Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.

They are also genetically distinct from the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) native across most of California, the newspaper said.

Ben Sacks, a biology professor at the University of California-Davis, says genetic testing shows the subspecies, which he calls the Sacramento Valley red fox, is unique to lowland areas north of the American River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

"We can now say that the foxes of the Sacramento Valley are native to California," Sacks said.

"The fact that the evidence is pointing toward it as a native species -- and a native species that we didn't know about -- is kind of an amazing development," said Armand Gonzales, a wildlife program manager at the California Department of Fish and Game. "That doesn't happen very often."

Champion Rat catcher of Bangladesh: Here's one he caught earlier!

Kari Mohmmad Fazlul Haque shows a rat he caught, at an annual prize giving ceremony on the first day of a month long rat killing campaign in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He has killed more than 83,000 rats

YouTheria: Predictive Animal Database for Endangered species

A new animalia database that allows users to explore the factors that predispose different mammalian species to extinction – from human encroachment to slow reproductive rate – could be useful in planning conservation schemes, its developers say. Anyone can access the online system, YouTHERIA, which allows users to manipulate parameters including habitat ecology, litter size and diet, and test their own hypotheses.

It relies on a vast database of all known and recently extinct mammals, called PanTHERIA, which lists details of the species' ecology, behaviour, diet, geographical range and habitat, based on more than two decades of published research. The database also records the extent to which each of the 5000-odd species is being impacted by humans and habitat degradation.

Warning signs

Analysis of the database has already highlighted a set of key characteristics – slow reproductive rate being one – which predispose mammals to extinction.

"For example, the Seychelles flying fox isn't declining in abundance now because its habitat is intact," says Andy Purvis, a biodiversity researcher at Imperial College London, who helped produce the tools. "But our database suggests that its slow reproductive rate will predispose it to extinction if and when its habitat is disturbed."

Purvis also recommends that conservationists focus on protecting the tundras of Siberia and Canada, where mammals predisposed to extinction because of slow reproduction, are currently thriving in healthy habitat.

Until now, the database has been restricted to the team of biologists who developed it, but Kate Jones at the Zoological Society of London and colleagues have made it freely available to other researchers, hoping that they will contribute to the data.

Encyclopedia of Life, another collaborative database of species, launched two years ago, has already seen contributions from 2 million people from 200 countries. This week it reached its 150,000th entry.

Journal reference: Ecology, DOI: 10.1890/08-1494.1

Betrayal by Vietnamese Wildlife farms

Restaurant workers skinning a crocodile from a Wildlife farm that pretends to protect endangered species (Image: AFP/Getty Images)

WILDLIFE farms are supposed to promote conservation by providing a sustainable alternative to hunting animals in the wild. But those in Vietnam are having exactly the opposite effect, says a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in New York.

Over the past two decades, dozens of commercial wildlife farms have sprung up in Vietnam. WCS investigators and Vietnamese officials who visited 78 farms undercover found that half had taken original breeding stock from wild populations, and 42 per cent were still doing so.

Animals farmed include snakes, turtles, crocodiles and monkeys. Worst affected are species such as tigers and bears, whose body parts or secretions are valued in traditional medicine. Not only are they slow to breed, but farms can also be used to launder products from animals killed in the wild.

Wildlife farmers should have to prove the source of their animals, and penalties for breaching wildlife laws should be increased, the WCS concludes.