New online map tracks wildlife disease outbreaks
It is now possible to track wildlife disease outbreaks around the world with a new online map, thanks to a collaborative effort by the UW-Madison and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Global Wildlife Disease News Map -- which also explains possible effects on domestic animals and human beings -- can be accessed at http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov. It is updated daily.
The site contains information about diseases such as chronic wasting disease, West Nile virus, avian influenza and monkeypox.
Users can browse the latest reports on almost 50 diseases and other health conditions, such as pesticide and lead poisoning, by geographic location.
The map is a project of the Wildlife Disease Information Node, a 5-year-old collaboration between the University of Wisconsin and two federal agencies that are part of the U.S. Geological Survey -- the National Wildlife Health Center and the National Biological Information Infrastucture.
"If you click on the name of a particular disease, it ... does a quick search of everything that we have on that topic," said Cris Marsh, a librarian with the Wildlife Disease Information Node, which is housed at the UW's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the USGS.
WDIN gathers news from more than 20 online sources and makes it available in several formats, from a news digest at wdin.blogspot.com to desktop widgets, e-mail and RSS feeds.
