[Tires] are traded for a variety of reasons, but mainly for reuse on vehicles. Differences in legislation and law enforcement concerning permissible tire wear and varying attitudes towards the use of recaps mean that tires which are not useable in one country are acceptable in others. Foreign exchange rates are another major factor in determining the origin and quantity of used tires imported from different countries. In the period 1970 to 1985, the United States imported 15.2 million used tires...(This comes from Hawley WA et al. 1987. Aedes albopictus in North America: probable introduction in used tires from northern Asia. Science 236: 1114–1116, with context below)
Item:
Animal diseases threaten humans: Improved tracking is urged
By M.A.J. McKENNA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/02/04
To protect humans against constantly evolving new disease threats, public health will have to turn its attention in a new direction, experts said Tuesday: toward the health of animals.Three-fourths of the new diseases that have menaced mankind over the past 20 years, and 11 of the 12 most dangerous bioterrorism agents, are animal diseases that have gained the ability to infect humans, researchers said at the Fourth International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta.
Adequate surveillance systems for animal diseases potentially could have spotted SARS, West Nile virus and monkeypox before their spread became so devastating, said Dr. Lonnie King, dean of the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
"We need to have a system that merges surveillance for people, wildlife and animals so that, as these microbes are spread from one population to another, we will understand the nature of the spread and come up with prevention strategies," King said...
"The fastest-growing poultry and pork production in the world is in Asia, to match the protein needs of the fastest-growing human population," said Michael Osterholm, founder of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "It is the ultimate Darwinian genetic laboratory for diseases: birds, people and pigs, all together."
Overview: Infectious History Joshua Lederberg Science Volume 288, Number 5464, Issue of 14 Apr 2000, pp. 287-293.
Central points: humans are in a coevolutionary relationship with the organisms that cause "disease": human activities [deforestation, irrigation, etc.] alter ecological settings, and efforts to "control disease" result in selective/evolutionary pressures on disease organisms. We are the most potent force(s) in the evolution of disease-causing organisms --"microbial innovations in the altered contexts we have created", in Lederberg's words.
(addendum: 19 April
World Epidemics: a cultural chronology of disease from prehistory to the era of SARS [RA649 .S65 2003])
Malaria:
Background readingfrom Robert Desowitz The Malaria Capers (1991)
During the early sixties there were ominous reports from South America that chloroquine [first developed in the 1930s by I.G. Farben] was not curing falciparum malaria. It was soon confirmed that chloroquine-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum had arisen under the pressure of overusage and, probably, underdosage. Slowly but inexorably, drug resistance spread throughout the entire malaria-endemic regions of the world... (206)Malaria on the Move: Human Population Movement and Malaria Transmission Pim Martens and Lisbeth Hall Emerging Infectious Diseases 6 (April 2000)No major efforts have been made to find an antimalarial to replace chloroquine. The motivations of colonialism and profit are gone. Pharmaceutical companies that once pioneered the development of drugs to treat malaria and other tropical diseases have, for the most part, dropped this line of research. The now astronomical costs for chemotherapeutic research, experimental and clinical trials, and steering any new drug through the legal-bureaucratic maze to obtain patents and FDA approval, have made the development of drugs to trat the diseases of poor people uneconomical. The stockholders would never approve of such altruistic fiscal irresponsibility. (207)
[Desowitz says that the environmentally deleterious effects of DDT were due to its overuse in agriculture, especially as one of the organochlorine pesticides in cotton (said by EPA to have accounted for 80% of use!)]
During the ten years that the [WHO-sponsored Global Eradication of Malaria] program was in effect, the nature of malaria had changed. There was no going back to pre-1955 conditions. The parasites had become resistant to the effective, inexpensive antimalaria drugs and there were no new therapies to replace them. When the Vietnam War ended, the U.S. Army's chemotherapeutic research effort, one of the few programs trying to develop new antimalarials, began to wind down.
The biology of the anopheline vectors had also changed during the "eradication years." Many species became resistant to insecticides... (217)
Malaria Parasite Outwits the Immune System Gary Taubes Science Volume 290, Number 5491, Issue of 20 Oct 2000, p. 435.
Malaria's Beginnings: On the Heels of Hoes? Elizabeth Pennisi Science Volume 293, Number 5529, Issue of 20 Jul 2001, pp. 416-417.
A New Global Effort to Control Malaria Jeffrey D. Sachs Science Volume 298, Number 5591, Issue of 4 Oct 2002, pp. 122-124.
Chloroquine resistance:
Update: Chloroquine-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum -- Africa (MMWR Weekly August 26, 1983 / 32(33);437-8)Clinical Study Confirms Single Gene Change in Chloroquine-Resistant Malaria (NIAID News Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2001)
maps of spread, 1960-1989
Culture Wars:
Disinfopedia article and another on Malaria and DDT(many of the above from a malaria gatheration)The Malaria Project and Malaria Foundation International
Roll Back Malaria? The scarcity of international aid for malaria control (Vasant Narasimhan and Amir Attaran) Malaria Journal
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West Nile Virus
My pages on Aedes albopictus and from a Web of Science search, 2001 ...also Aedes japonicusWest Nile Virus Bibliography, 1965-2002 from USDA
Wikipedia entry for Aedes albopictus
It is believed that the international trade of used tires between Japan and the United States in the early 1980s may have caused the mosquito to enter the country. From 1983-1985, the United States imported $4.5 billion in used tires from Japan. There is still uncertainty, however, as to when the species entered the United States. It is possible that the Asian tiger mosquito was here before its discovery.Spread: The first recorded invasion of the Asian tiger mosquito was in 1985, when a breeding population was found in a used tire yard in Houston, Texas. In only two years, the population had already spread into 17 states. The current species range extends from Texas all along the Southern coast of the United States to the Atlantic Ocean. The range also extends as far north as Iowa. This current distribution covers 25 states. Spread of the mosquito is facilitated by the trade of used tires among states.
The Asian Tiger Mosquito in Florida (G.F. O'Meara)
Sprenger D, Wuithiranyagool T, 1986. The discovery and distribution of Aedes albopictus in Harris County, Texas. J Am Mosq Control Assoc 2: 217–219.
Hawley WA, Reiter P, Copeland RS, Pumpuni CB, Craig GB Jr, 1987. Aedes albopictus in North America: probable introduction in used tires from northern Asia. Science 236: 1114–1116.
[Tires] are traded for a variety of reasons, but mainly for reuse on vehicles. Differences in legislation and law enforcement concerning permissible tire wear and varying attitudes towards the use of recaps mean that tires which are not useable in one country are acceptable in others. Foreign exchange rates are another major factor in determining the origin and quantity of used tires imported from different countries. In the period 1970 to 1985, the United States imported 15.2 million used tires...some from Web of Science search for citers of Hawley et al. 1987
LARGE GENETIC DIFFERENTIATION AND LOW VARIATION IN VECTOR COMPETENCE FOR DENGUE AND YELLOW FEVER VIRUSES OF AEDES ALBOPICTUS FROM BRAZIL, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CAYMAN ISLANDS RICARDO LOURENÇO DE OLIVEIRA, MARIE VAZEILLE, ANA MARIA BISPO DE FILIPPIS, AND ANNA-BELLA FAILLOUX Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 69(1), 2003, pp. 105-114
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Vulture update: In divided area, a drive to save vultures By Rachel J. Dickinson Christian Science Monitor 4 March 2004
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(see 13 March 2001 entry in /global/humangeog.html for some reminders of resources... and the whole page is worth revisiting)
WHO Traditional Medicine catalog
Lyme Disease in NY (map image)
see 24 and 25 Jan postings in log file for some zoonotic links ...and see the header of Appalachian counties list for Jessica? and Southern Appalachian Assessment Online Database --see c:\esri\appalachia\ on old office machine?
