- Tangled Bank #99; apologies for the late link.
- Participatory approach to wild boar problem — in Brighton, England!
Disease hotspots mapped
A letter in Nature this week looks at “Global trends in emerging infectious diseases.” ((Kate E. Jones, Nikkita G. Patel, Marc A. Levy, Adam Storeygard, Deborah Balk, John L. Gittleman & Peter Daszak. Nature 451, 990-993 (21 February 2008); doi:10.1038/nature06536.)) It includes some interesting maps, including these:
They show the global distribution of relative risk of an emerging infectious disease (EID) event caused by: (a) zoonotic pathogens from wildlife, (b) zoonotic pathogens from non-wildlife, (c) drug-resistant pathogens and (d) vector-borne pathogens. That’s based on climate, human population density and growth, and wildlife host species richness. Note in particular the map in the top right-hand corner: basically risk of zoonotic pathogens jumping to humans from livestock. Compare this livestock density ((FAO has more data on this.)):
Not a great match with density of domesticated animals. Maybe the correlation would be better with livestock diversity?
Nibbles: Honey, seeds, bioprospecting, chocolate
- Haagen Dazs understands. No bees = no honey and no fruit.
- Over-excited about seeds. Jeremy comments, “It’s that time of the year”.
- South Korea bioprospecting in Costa Rica.
- A round-up of recent (bad) news on the chocolate front.
- Namibia: no country for vegetarians.
Reflections on dog breeding
Nice pictures of livestock guardian dog breeds. And a plea for lumping.
Saving local breeds, then eating them
Matthew Fort, who writes on food and drink for the Guardian newspaper in the UK, waxes lyrical about the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and its mission:
Speaking personally, on the whole I worry rather more about the survival of Boreray sheep and Marsh Daisy poultry than I do about the snow leopard or the hairy-nosed wombat, if only on the grounds that I would like the chance to eat them.