Don’t have a cow

Environmentalists trying to preserve wetlands look down on cattle, whose grazing tends to destroy wetlands. But recent research published in Conservation Biology shows cattle may do more good than previously thought. In fact, cattle grazing can be critical for the survival of wetlands, and the many endangered species that live in them. The scientists looked at 36 pools in Sacramento County and found that pools with cattle removed had lower water levels an average of 50 days of the year. They also found that cattle had the strongest positive effect when they had been living at a pool for more than 150 years. Apparently, cattle grazing helps maintain moisture and determines the degree of flooding.

-Chris Damdar

Source: Conservation Biology

Death from the past 1918

Know your enemy. Scientists at the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), in Atlanta, have adopted the first rule of Machiavellian thought in their fight against the feared H5N1 strain of avian flu. By performing autopsies of people killed by the infamous 1918 influenza, they plan to strengthen the attack on its modern day relative. The researchers have successfully sequenced the genome of the 1918 flu virus, and concluded the virus was avian in origin. By manipulating and mutating the 1918 virus, scientists are trying to understand the mechanism by which the virus mutates naturally, and hence discover methods that may stop the spread of the flu today.

-Jennifer Bates

Source: The Economist

Avian flu update

With health officials the world over gearing up for a global outbreak of the flu, the last thing we need to hear will be published in this weeks’ issue of Nature. Researchers at the University of Winsconsin-Madison, working with researchers in Vietnam and Japan, have isolated a strain of the bird flu that is resistant to the drug Tamiflu, the same drug that scientists had hoped would be the first line of defense against the potential pandemic until a vaccine was produced. The resistant flu strain was isolated from a Vietnamese girl who had been given Tamiflu after she had exhibited flu-like symptoms. Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka, lead author of the report, suggests that health officials begin looking into other medical options.

-C.D.

Source: Nature