ANIMALNET JULY 4, 2000 -- II Bad news Bears Importation of Bovine parts from Argentina Studies find young saltwater fish returning to the fold Whaling nations scuttle sanctuary proposal Click of the mouse might harness a wild Horse or Burro at auction Orphaned S.African Penguin chicks rescued Scientists predict big rise in animal tests Mechanism of action of a pestivirus antiviral compound Genome-wide scan for body composition in Pigs Without oxytocin, every mouse is a stranger 2 teens injured by shark bites Nova scotia high school closes because of Rat infestation Whale and dolphin meat sold in Japan has high levels of dioxin Ecology : slipping the net AnimalNet is produced by researchers at the Agri-Food Risk Management and Communication Project at the University of Guelph, is edited by Wendy Powell (wpowell@uoguelph.ca) and Douglas Powell (dpowell@uoguelph.ca), and is supported by the Ontario Cattlemen's Association, the U.S. National Pork Producers, U.S. National Food Processors Association, Dairy Farmers of Canada, Pfizer Animal Health Group, Pioneer Hi-Bred Limited (Canada), Canadian Animal Health Institute, Dairy Farmers of Ontario, Meat & Livestock Australia, Canadian Pork Council, Ontario Egg Producers, Ontario Farm Animal Council, U.S. National Cattlemens Beef Association, the Rutgers Food Risk Analysis Initiative, Ag-West Biotech, Land O' Lakes Feed, Capital Health, Animal Industry Foundation, American Feed Industry Assn., the Ontario Soybean Growers Marketing Board, Food Indsutry Environmental Network, Canadian Poultry and Egg Processors, Chicken Farmers of Canada, MDS Nordion, American Meat Institute, USDA Veterinary Services (Fort Collins) Alberta Farm Animal Council, and the Agricultural Adaptation Council (CanAdapt Program). archived at: http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/animalnet-archives.htm BAD NEWS BEARS July 4, 2000 The Associated Press Amy Westfeldt Associated Press Writer WANTAGE, N.J. (AP) -- This story explained that William Kellner didnıt see the animal coming. He had just closed the barbecue grill on the back porch of his vacation trailer when his son was cited as yelling ³Bear!² The black bear was, this story explained, right behind Kellner, towering over him, sniffing at the grill. This story explained that New Jerseyıs Fish and Game Council scheduled the hunt for 175 bears to curb a burgeoning ursine population that is killing livestock and breaking into homes and cars. In the state with the highest population density in the country, with, according to this story, more than 1,000 per square mile, bears walk through suburban yards and saunter along roads. Experts were cited as saying that they were born and raised with people around. Bob Eriksen, a biologist with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, was quoted as saying, ³Theyıre used to cutting across the back lawn, coming across the driveway, checking out the garage for trash. They donıt avoid people.² Eriksen was cited as saying that in the 1970s, when bear hunts were abandoned, black bears numbered ³well below² 100 in New Jersey. Now, this story says, more than 1,000 roam 11 counties, especially in northern parts like Wantage, about 75 miles from New York City. If you go far enough north, in Sussex County at the northwestern tip of New Jersey, just about everyone has, according to this story, seen a bear in the past few years and has a story to tell. Eriksen was cited as saying that in 1995, the Division of Fish and Wildlife handled 250 bear complaints. Last year there were, this story explained, 1,659, including 29 complaints of bears entering homes, 29 complaints of killing goat, sheep and other livestock, 12 attacks of pet dogs and 46 bears who were killed by cars. Yet residents and legislators are, according to this story, not sure whether killing bears is the right way to control them. The state Senate last week was cited as passing a bill that would postpone a bear hunt for five years and instructs the state to come up with another population control plan that could include sterilizing females. The bill is pending. Kellner was further cited as saying that hunters have an obligation to reduce the number of bears competing for food, adding, ³Theyıll starve to death if you donıt kill them.² Eriksen was cited as saying that northern New Jersey offers enough vegetation and wildlife to satisfy many more bears, but the problem is that the animals are living too close to the sprawling suburbs. IMPORTATION OF BOVINE PARTS FROM ARGENTINA June 28, 2000 Federal Register: (Volume 65, Number 125) [Rules and Regulations] [Page 39782-39784] [DOCID:fr28jn00-3] http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2000_register&doci d=00-16314-filed 9 CFR Part 94 [Docket No. 00-038-1] AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA. ACTION: Interim rule and request for comments. SUMMARY: We are amending the regulations governing the importation of certain animals, meat, and other animal products by prohibiting the importation from Argentina of any bovine parts that are not, by standard practice, part of a bovine carcass that is placed in a chiller for maturation after slaughter. Items prohibited from importation include all parts of bovine heads, feet, hooves, and internal organs. Additionally, we are requiring that bovines slaughtered for the export of fresh beef from Argentina to the United States undergo ante- and post-mortem inspections for signs of foot-and-mouth disease and that representatives of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service be allowed access to the establishments where the bovines are slaughtered. We are also clarifying some provisions of the regulations. We are taking these actions as emergency measures to protect the livestock of the United States from foot-and-mouth disease. DATES: This interim rule is effective June 28, 2000. We invite you to comment on this docket. We will consider all comments that we receive by August 28, 2000. ADDRESSES: Please send your comment and three copies to: Docket No. 00- 038-1, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Suite 3C03, 4700 River Road, Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238. Please state that your comment refers to Docket No. 00-038-1. You may read any comments that we receive on this docket in our reading room. The reading room is located in room 1141 of the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC. Normal reading room hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817 before coming. APHIS documents published in the Federal Register, and related information, including the names of organizations and individuals who have commented on APHIS dockets, are available on the Internet at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppd/rad/webrepor.html. STUDIES FIND YOUNG SALTWATER FISH RETURNING TO THE FOLD July 4, 2000 The New York Times Henry Fountain http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/070400sci-animal-fish.html This story explained that the typical saltwater fishıs childhood is something of a lost time, at least for scientists trying to study it. Not much is, according to this story, known about what happens during most fishesı larval stages, when they are tiny and floating in the plankton in the swirling waters. And that has, this story explained, led to a great question in marine ecology: are fish populations open, with young fish shuttling in and out across great distances, or closed, with juveniles largely settling back where they were born? Now, according to this story, research offers the first solid evidence that larvae can, and do, go home again, that a population of fish retains many of its offspring. The findings have, this story says, great implications for managing ocean fish stocks and developing marine reserves. Stephen Swearer, a researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the lead author of a study of reef fish on St. Croix in the Caribbean, was quoted as saying, ³I think the results are incredibly surprising. The paradigm was that marine populations were open. But it seemed to me more logical that this is what larvae were doing.² The St. Croix study and a study of fish on the Great Barrier Reef by scientists at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, were cited as shedding light on what happens to the larvae during the pelagic phase, when they are out in the plankton amid ocean currents. The researchers in both studies were cited as making use of a tiny ear bone found in fish larvae to help trace their whereabouts. This story explained that the bone, called the otolith, is no larger than a grain of sand and adds layers of calcium carbonate as the larvae develop, like a daily version of a tree ring. WHALING NATIONS SCUTTLE SANCTUARY PROPOSAL July 4, 2000 Reuters Marie McInerney ADELAIDE -- This story explained that whaling nations Japan and Norway successfully blocked a bid on Tuesday to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds in the South Pacific. But anti-whaling countries and environmentalists were cited as vowing to press on with the plan and to resist efforts by whalers to lift a 1986 global moratorium on commercial whaling. This story further explained that the South Pacific sanctuary, proposed by Australia and backed by New Zealand, Britain and the United States, failed to win the required 75 per cent of votes at the 41-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting in Adelaide. Japan, which caught more than 500 whales last year for what it was cited as saying were scientific purposes, hailed the widely-anticipated result as a victory for science over emotion. Japanese commissioner Minoru Morimoto was cited as saying that Australiaıs proposal was ³absurd and had been doomed to fail from the start.² Japan was further cited as saying that there was no scientific justification for a sanctuary, particularly given the ban on commercial whaling. However, Australia was cited as saying that it was illogical that whale breeding grounds in the Pacific were not protected when the IWC had already made their Southern Ocean feeding grounds a sanctuary. Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill was quoted as telling reporters, ³If the science was right for the Southern Ocean, it seems to me it has to be right for the South Pacific,² adding that Australia was disappointed but undeterred by the result of its first bid for the sanctuary and would push on with the proposal at the next IWC meeting in London in 2001. He was quoted as saying, ³We are not going to go away. The South Pacific wants this sanctuary and we will ensure the South Pacific gets it.² This story explained that eighteen of the 35 countries eligible to vote supported the sanctuary proposal, with 11 -- China, Denmark, Dominica, Guinea, Japan, Norway, and the Caribbean states of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent -- against. Four delegations -- Ireland, Korea, Oman and Russia -- abstained, and Italy and the Solomon Islands were absent for the vote. The High North Alliance of whalers from Norway, Canada, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland, has been cited as urging Norway, which plans to kill 655 minke whales this year, to quit the IWC. Alliance spokesman Rune Frovik was quoted as telling reporters on Tuesday, ³This body is about to slide into terminal irrelevancy.² Japan was cited as saying that it had no intention of quitting but suggested Australia should consider getting out if it instead of insisting on trying to change the IWC from a whaling regulator to a conservation body. Disappointed environmental groups were cited as accusing Japan of using development aid to secure the votes of smaller countries against the sanctuary, alleging that Caribbean nations had been key targets in recent years. Patrick Ramage from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, was quoted as saying, ³This wasnıt a vote, it was an auction, and Japan was the winning bidder.² Japan has been cited as rejecting charges of vote-buying. Greenpeace, which Japan tried unsuccessfully to have banned from attending the IWC meeting after a whaling protest last year, was cited as saying that the future of whales in the South Pacific was now uncertain. Greenpeace campaigner John Frizell was quoted as saying, ³Why would Japan go to such expense and put so much effort into defeating the sanctuary proposal if it didnıt intend to hunt in the South Pacific?² CLICK OF THE MOUSE MIGHT HARNESS A WILD HORSE OR BURRO AT AUCTION July 4, 2000 ; A17 The Washington Post http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagenamewp ni/print&articleidA43084-2000Jul3 The Interior Departmentıs Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is, according to this story, selling 44 wild horses and burros online through July 19. This story explained that the animals available for ³adoption² were captured in Wyoming, Arizona, Nevada, Utah and California. The federal government regularly rounds up unbranded, free-roaming horses and burros found on public lands out West that are, this story says, descendants of animals released by or escaped from Spanish explorers, Indians and others. This story explained that the program helps to keep the thriving wild herds under control and protect the natural ecological balance. These wild horses and burros are, according to this story, ³living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West,² Congress said in passing a law in 1971 to protect them. Anyone interested in seeing the animals for the online auction may go to www.adoptahorse.blm.gov, where bidding requirements and application forms are also available. ORPHANED S.AFRICAN PENGUIN CHICKS RESCUED July 4, 2000 Reuters Jeremy Lovell DASSEN ISLAND, South Africa -- This story explained that hundreds of orphaned penguin chicks were dragged struggling from their nests on this South African island on Tuesday as the focus of a major oil spill rescue operation switched from adult birds. Cape Nature Conservation scientist Tony Williams was quoted as telling reporters, ³We are going to save what we can save,² adding that there could be up to 15,000 fledgling penguin chicks on the island off South Africaıs coast, many of which have been abandoned by their oiled or rescued parents. As soon as we get the all clear we will start to release the chicks. I expect it to happen from the middle of next week. These birds are tough little devils.² Cape Nature chief executive David Daitz was cited as saying that the adult rescue operation would end at dusk, adding, ³As of last night we had taken 6,500 adult penguins off the island and we are well on target to get another 3,500 off today.² SCIENTISTS PREDICT BIG RISE IN ANIMAL TESTS July 4, 2000 The Guardian Lucy Ward, political correspondent http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,339521,00.html The government is, according to this story, braced for a massive increase in scientific experiments on animals over the next few years as the completion of the human genome project causes applications for research licences to flood in. Official figures due out next month will be cited as showing a rise in the number of animal experiments for the second year running after 20 years of decline. But senior scientists were cited as accusing ministers of refusing to cut red tape which they claim slows down the licensing of animal experiments because an increase in research would be ³politically unacceptable² . It is, according to this story, understood that the Home Office, which issues the licences, is seeking ways to play down the increase in applications for fear of offending animal-loving voters ahead of the election, expected next year. This story asks, pre-election statement in 1996 - the same year Labour received a £1.1m donation from the animal rights group, the Political Animal Lobby - committed the party to attempting to reduce the numbers of animal experiments. Colin Blakemore, professor of neuroscience at Oxford University, was quoted as saying, ³As the consequences of the human genome research work through, I would not be at all surprised if there is a 10% increase year-on-year in the total number of animals applied for over the next five years.² Frustration is, this story explained, growing at the licensing logjam, where an application can now take six months or more, compared with days or weeks in other countries. The science minister, Lord Sainsbury, is, this story says, to meet senior medical researchers next month in response to a warning that scientists will leave Britain to work abroad because bureaucratic delays are impeding research. This story explained that one high-profile academic was told by a senior figure involved in government oversight of research involving animals that a rise in the numbers of experiments would be ³politically unacceptable before an election.² Scientists - who are reluctant to speak out publicly for fear of jeopardising government research funding - were cited as saying in private that bureaucracy in licensing processing is being used to limit research. Government concern is, this story explained, said to have prompted a request to scientific attachés in UK embassies overseas that they unearth figures indicating that British research achieves more scientific benefit for each animal involved in experiments. The extreme sensitivity of the Labour party to public opinion on animal research was, according to this story, demonstrated in January when it emerged that the partyıs staff pensions fund had invested £10,000 in shares in Huntingdon Life Sciences, Europeıs largest animal research laboratory. The shareholding was, this story explained, swiftly sold off following protests. The government has, according to this story, already failed to act on promises in its 1996 document, New Labour - New Life for Animals, that it would support a royal commission on animal experimentation and would try to reduce the number of experiments. Dr Mark Matfield, executive director of the Research Defence Society which lobbies for animal experiments on behalf of academics and the pharmaceutical industry, was cited as predicting figures out next month would show numbers of animal experiments had risen from 2.66m in 1998 to around 2.7-2.75m in 1999, a year-on-year increase of 2 to 2.5%. Scientists were cited as insisting that they do not want British legislation regulating animal experiments - which they say is the strictest in the world - to be watered down. However, they were cited as arguing that additions and alterations to the 1986 Animals (scientific procedures) Act - particularly the ethical review process introduced last year - have created a morass of red tape. Nancy Rothwell, professor of physiology at the University of Manchester, was quoted as saying, ³Writing a project licence application is one of the hardest things scientists do. There are continual changes in criteria: what was acceptable last year may not be acceptable now and certainly will not be in six months.² MECHANISM OF ACTION OF A PESTIVIRUS ANTIVIRAL COMPOUND July 5, 2000 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 97, Issue 14, 7981-7986 Scott G. Baginski*, Daniel C. Pevear, Marty Seipel, Siu Chi Chang Sun, Christopher A. Benetatos, Srinivas K. Chunduru, Charles M. Rice*, and Marc S. Collett Washington University, Department of Molecular Microbiology, St. Louis, MO 63110; and ViroPharma Incorporated, Exton, PA 19341 Communicated by Michael G. Rossmann, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, May 15, 2000 (received for review January 4, 2000) Abstract We report here the discovery of a small molecule inhibitor of pestivirus replication. The compound, designated VP32947, inhibits the replication of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) in cell culture at a 50% inhibitory concentration of approximately 20 nM. VP32947 inhibits both cytopathic and noncytopathic pestiviruses, including isolates of BVDV-1, BVDV-2, border disease virus, and classical swine fever virus. However, the compound shows no activity against viruses from unrelated virus groups. Time of drug addition studies indicated that VP32947 acts after virus adsorption and penetration and before virus assembly and release. Analysis of viral macromolecular synthesis showed VP32947 had no effect on viral protein synthesis or polyprotein processing but did inhibit viral RNA synthesis. To identify the molecular target of VP32947, we isolated drug-resistant (DR) variants of BVDV-1 in cell culture. Sequence analysis of the complete genomic RNA of two DR variants revealed a single common amino acid change located within the coding region of the NS5B protein, the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. When this single amino acid change was introduced into an infectious clone of drug-sensitive wild-type (WT) BVDV-1, replication of the resulting virus was resistant to VP32947. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity of the NS5B proteins derived from WT and DR viruses expressed and purified from recombinant baculovirus-infected insect cells confirmed the drug sensitivity of the WT enzyme and the drug resistance of the DR enzyme. This work formally validates NS5B as a target for antiviral drug discovery and development. The utility of VP32947 and similar compounds for the control of pestivirus diseases, and for hepatitis C virus drug discovery efforts, is discussed. GENOME-WIDE SCAN FOR BODY COMPOSITION IN PIGS REVEALS IMPORTANT ROLE OF IMPRINTING July 5, 2000 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 97, Issue 14, 7947-7950 Dirk-Jan de Koning*, Annemieke P. Rattink, Barbara Harlizius, Johan A. M. van Arendonk, E. W. Brascamp, and Martien A. M. Groenen Animal Breeding and Genetics Group, Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands Communicated by James E. Womack, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, May 12, 2000 (received for review December 22, 1999) Abstract The role of imprinting in body composition was investigated in an experimental cross between Chinese Meishan pigs and commercial Dutch pigs. A whole-genome scan revealed significant evidence for five quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting body composition, of which four were imprinted. Imprinting was tested with a statistical model that separated the expression of paternally and maternally inherited alleles. For back fat thickness, a paternally expressed QTL was found on Sus scrofa chromosome 2 (SSC2), and a Mendelian-expressed QTL was found on SSC7.In the same region of SSC7, a maternally expressed QTL affecting muscle depth was found. Chromosome 6 harbored a maternally expressed QTL on the short arm and a paternally expressed QTL on the long arm, both affecting intramuscular fat content. The individual QTL explained from 2% up to 10% of the phenotypic variance. The known homologies to human and mouse did not reveal positional candidate genes. This study demonstrates that testing for imprinting should become a standard procedure to unravel the genetic control of multifactorial traits. WITHOUT OXYTOCIN, EVERY MOUSE IS A STRANGER July 3, 2000 Science Now Adrian Cho http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2000/703/1 Researchers were cited as reporting in the July issue of Nature Genetics that mice that lack oxytocin cannot remember one anotherıs scent. The finding was cited as bolstering the theory that the brain stores ³social memory² differently than other types of memory, and it may point to the biological roots of human disorders with a social component, such as autism. Yet despite their social ineptness, the oxytocin lacking mice remembered other things as well as their normal peers. 2 TEENS INJURED BY SHARK BITES July 4, 2000 The Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/print/asection/20000704/t000063072.html >From Times Wire Reports Two teenagers swimming in an ocean inlet were, according to this story, bitten by sharks as they swam off New Smyrna Beach. Danielle Shidemantle, 19, of Lake Mary, was, this story says, bitten by a 3-foot-long shark in her upper left thigh, Volusia County Deputy Beach Chief Joe Wooden said. This story explained that a little more than two hours later, Amber Benningfield, 13, from Bowling Green, Ky., was bitten in her left calf. The attacks were, according to this story, within a few yards of each other. Wooden was cited as saying that the sharks were probably black tip or spinner sharks. NOVA SCOTIA HIGH SCHOOL CLOSES BECAUSE OF RAT INFESTATION July 3, 2000 Canadian Press http://www.canoe.ca/AtlanticTicker/CANOE-wire.Atlantic-Today.html TRURO, N.S. (CP) -- An apparent rodent problem has been cited as prompting the closure of the largest high school here for the summer. Anne Hamilton Wood, spokeswoman for the Chignecto Regional School Board, was cited as saying that no rats have been spotted at Cobequid Educational Centre but there is evidence theyıre in the school. She was further cited as saying that summer school has been moved to other locations in Truro. Wood also said that school board employees will begin trapping rats this week and the cleanup should be able to be done without using any chemicals, adding, ³Weıll be making sure everything is all right before anyone gets back into the building.² WHALE AND DOLPHIN MEAT SOLD IN JAPAN HAS HIGH LEVELS OF DIOXIN July 4, 2000 Japanese Times Online http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20000704a4.htm According to a report submitted to an international whaling meeting that opened Monday in Adelaide, Australia Japanese researchers have found high concentrations of accumulated dioxin in whale and dolphin meat sold in Japan. The report submitted to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission was cited as saying that researchers headed by Koichi Haraguchi, associate professor at Daiichi University, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fukuoka, detected dioxin levels up to 172 times the tolerable daily intake in marketed whale and dolphin meat. Haraguchiıs team were cited as examining levels of dioxin as well as dibenzofuran and coplanar polychlorinated biphenyl, which have a toxicity similar to that of dioxin, in 38 types of whale and dolphin meat that were sold in Japan last year and earlier this year. The highest concentration of dioxin was, according to this story, detected in the fat of dolphins, recording a maximum of 691 picograms per gram when the amount was converted into the most toxic dioxin, and 232 picograms on average, according to the report. The researchers will, this story explained, release detailed data on their findings at an international conference on dioxin to be held in California in August. ECOLOGY : SLIPPING THE NET July 4, 2000 Nature Science Update DAVID ADAM http://helix.nature.com/nsu/000706/000706-5.html According to a new study of whale products on the Japanese and Korean markets, a protected population of whales could be extinct within twenty years unless measures are taken to reduce accidental catches and illegal hunting. The researchers were cited as estimating that up to 150 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) are taken from coastal regions of the Sea of Japan each year, despite falling under a commercial whaling moratorium. The report was cited as suggesting that Japanese scientific hunting of minke whales in the open sea disguises this unregulated exploitation of protected stocks. The analysis of DNA amplified from commercial whale meat, skin and blubber also was cited as revealing continued sale of other protected whale species in Japan and Korea, despite the 1986 ban on this trade. Traces were, this story says, found of humpback, sperm and even a blue whale - whose global population is now thought to be below 1,000. This story explained that protected minke whale stocks seem to be under the most immediate threat. Most hunted whales are from Antarctic waters, but about a fifth are, this story explained, taken further north: where minke whales live either in the Sea of Japan (between Korea and Japan) or in open waters to the east. The stocks in the Sea of Japan are protected, so the researchers were cited as expecting that whale products bought in restaurants and supermarkets would be from Antarctic and deep water ŒO-stockı minkes (so-called because they are though to migrate north into the Okhotsk Sea). But, this story explained, almost a third of North Pacific minke products came from the Sea of Japan, or ŒJ-stockı whales, they report. Although it is, this story says, illegal to hunt J-stock minkes directly, those trapped in nets or accidentally killed by boats can be sold alongside meat and blubber from Œscientificallyı obtained O-stock whales. Such Œincidentalı catches have, according to this story, to be documented - but records only account for about half of the J-stock whales apparently taken, the researchers say. This story explained that the remaining figures seemed to have slipped through the net, even if the whales didnıt. Stephen Palumbi at Harvard University, Massachusetts, one of the reportıs authors, was cited as saying that the legal market for O-stock minkes provides cover for the trade in meat from protected J-stock animals, adding, ³Itıs alarming. This really does show at a population level that legal whaling is driving a threatened population to extinction.² This story further explained that the J-stock minke population is now thought to be below 2,000. He would, this story says, be ³very surprised² if these incidental deaths do not include illegal whaling. Fishermen who Œforgetı to pull in nets at night can, this story explained, earn up to US$100,000 if they trap and drown a protected minke whale. Palumbi was quoted as remarking, ³Whales are valuable commodities and all the fishermen I know are keenly aware of the value of things,² adding that depletion of protected whale stocks will continue unless the legal market in whale meat is brought under tighter control. He was cited as wanting to see random DNA testing of whale products and better labeling to trace sources. The Japanese Fisheries Agency was, according to this story, unavailable for comment but is reported to dispute the study figures and also to be developing stricter controls, including DNA testing. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was cited as cooperating with the research but is reluctant to discuss the results, which are published in proceedings of the Royal Society B1. IWC secretary Ray Gambell, was quoted as saying, ³The IWC will not be considering these issues until its meeting [on] 3-6 July [2000] in Adelaide.² To subscribe to AnimalNet, send mail to: (subscription is free) listserv@listserv.uoguelph.ca leave subject line blank in the body of the message type: subscribe animalnet-L firstname lastname i.e. subscribe animalnet -L Doug Powell To unsubscribe to AnimalNet, send mail to: listserv@listserv.uoguelph.ca leave subject line blank in the body of the message type: signoff animalnet-L For more information about the AnimalNet research program, please contact: Dr. Douglas Powell dept. of plant agriculture University of Guelph Guelph, Ont. N1G 2W1 tel: 519-824-4120 x2506 fax: 519-763-8933 dpowell@uoguelph.ca http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood archived at: http://www.plant.uoguelph.ca/safefood/archives/animalnet-archives.htm