USGS Scientist Dr. Howard Ginsberg was recently appointed to the Governor's Commission on Lyme Disease and other Tick-borne Infections for the State of Rhode Island, by Governor Lincoln Almond. The appointment was made as a result of Dr Ginsberg's expertise in Epidemiology and Public Health. Dr Ginsberg is currently engaged in research on transmission dynamics of Lyme disease spirochetes between ticks and vertebrate hosts, and on the epizootiology of mosquito-transmitted West Nile Virus.

PWRC Scientists Nichols, Hines, Sauer and Kendall Teach Capture-Recapture Workshop

For the week of March 11 Jim Nichols, Jim Hines, John Sauer, and Bill Kendall taught a workshop at North Carolina State University. The topic was capture-recapture and distance methodology and software. The audience was composed of USGS personnel of the North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and other faculty, graduate students, and a scientist from Manomet Bird Observatory in Massachusetts. The format was a mixture of lecture and computer exercises. The workshop was well received and each participant was able to put the tools acquired to immediate use in research projects.

Ecotoxicological Findings Presented by Rattner to Chesapeake Bay Program Toxics Subcommittee

On March 21, Barnett Rattner presented recent USGS ecotoxicological research findings to the Chesapeake Bay Program Toxics Subcommittee. Data included environmental contaminant exposure and reproductive effects in herons and ospreys nesting in Chesapeake Bay Regions of Concern, and an overview of 40 years of terrestrial vertebrate ecotoxicological data and future research needs for Chesapeake Bay wildlife.

Contact: Dr Barnett A. Rattner 301-497-5671

On March 22, Neal Woodman of the Biological Survey Unit in the National Museum of Natural History traveled to Penn State University-Lehigh Valley Campus at their invitation to give a presentation on Costa Rican mammals and their natural history. A subset of students from the campus will be traveling to Costa Rica later this spring to take part in a field course sponsored by the university.

Patuxent's Biological Survey Unit Staff Assist U.S. Army Theater Entomologists in Identification of Rodents from Allied Military Bases in  Afghanistan and Pakistan

Neal Woodman and other members of the Biological Survey Unit, in collaboration with the colleagues in the Division of Mammals, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Smithsonian Institution, have been assisting theater entomologists from the U.S. Army's 3rd Medical Command by identifying rodents from allied military bases in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These identifications assist in assessing any potential health threats that the rodents, their activities, or their parasites may represent to allied forces. A colonel involved in the work noted, "This is potentially very important for force health protection during Operation Enduring Freedom." The NMNH will act as a repository for specimens sent for identification, so that future taxonomic changes concerning these poorly-studied mammals can be linked more efficiently to possible epidemiological concerns.

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August 31, 2000
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