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Dear all,
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<br /> Bat Conservation International is coordinating a sign-on letter in support of the Wildlife Disease Emergency Act (S.357). The legislation would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to declare an emerging wildlife disease an emergency, and put at his/her disposal resources to quickly mobilize in order to address the disease. The letter text below outlines our reasons for supporting the bill.
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<br /> We invite your organization to sign. Because the letter is for the Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee's hearing next Tuesday, please contact me <b>by COB on Monday, March 12</b>. If you have questions, feel free to email or call me.
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<br />Thanks,
<br />Jocelyn
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<div style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; color: #000000;">Jocelyn Ziemian
<br />Policy Specialist
<br />Bat Conservation International
<br />202/466-3439
<br />http://www.batcon.org/
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">March 13, 2012
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Dear Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Sessions,
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> Thank you for holding a hearing on legislation that is so important to wildlife.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> As non-governmental organizations engaged in conserving wildlife, including preventing and controlling wildlife disease, we are writing to express our support for the Wildlife Disease Emergency Act, S.357.</span>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> New and emerging diseases pose a critical and growing threat to the health of wildlife.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> Since 1970, more than 40 previously undocumented diseases have been identified around the world.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> The global wildlife and pet trade, international travel, introduction of non-native species, and changes in human land-use have all contributed to wildlife coming into contact with pathogens to which they are unaccustomed and lack resistance.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As globalization accelerates, this trend will only continue.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Industrial byproducts such as mercury and lead, agricultural products like fertilizers and pesticides, and medicinal and other products in human sewage and garbage can also cause disease, often by suppressing immune response.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Climate change’s alterations to ecosystems will further exacerbate disease outbreaks by creating conditions favorable to such vectors as ticks and mosquitoes.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> Wildlife disease affects human well-being.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> Bats and birds consume vast numbers of insects that would otherwise attack agricultural crops, for example, and bees pollinate crops and other plants. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> Losing these animals to White-nose Syndrome, West Nile Virus, and diseases impacting native pollinators affects not only wildlife, but also farmers and consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Other wildlife diseases kill animals we rely on for food.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Prior to effective control strategies in the United States, avian influenza and Newcastle disease were transferred among wild birds and poultry, while viral hemorrhagic septicemia still affects <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>both wild fish and aquaculture populations, with impacts for fisheries. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Moreover, while not all emerging wildlife diseases cause illness in humans today, a disease may mutate from animal forms to human forms in the future, especially in the face of the environmental changes described above.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We are keen to prevent the human and economic tolls associated with such disease transfer as we have witnessed with the emergence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) from non-human primates.</span>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> The gravity of emerging wildlife disease is compounded by institutions’ difficulty addressing it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> In many cases, little to no knowledge exists about an emerging disease, so researchers must start from scratch in order to gain scientific understanding.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Wildlife managers are obligated to develop protocols to handle the disease on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Groups must educate the public, and policymakers have to learn about the disease in order to enact appropriate measures to combat it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Overarching coordination is necessary to promote efficiency and prevent redundancy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Federal funds are needed for any of this to occur.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Too often, the wildlife disease community scrambles to develop a basic response for a disease, only to find the outbreak’s magnitude has surpassed the scale of the response.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> We support the Wildlife Disease Emergency Act because it would help remedy the major challenges inherent in responding to emerging wildlife diseases: lack of intellectual, logistical, and financial resources.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The coordinated response team and interagency Wildlife Disease Committee envisioned by this legislation will facilitate scientific discoveries and inform decision-making in the early stages of an outbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Federal, State, and Tribal agencies and other stakeholders, including NGOs, that the Secretary of the Interior may mobilize will provide logistical assistance needed to monitor and manage a disease.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The Wildlife Disease Emergency Fund and Grant Program will speed the delivery of funds to carry out the aforementioned work.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These funds will also be money saved, since controlling a disease early is cheaper than dealing with a full-blown outbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Finally, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to declare a wildlife disease emergency will help legitimize a disease in the eyes of the public and of private funders.</span>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> We thank Senator Lautenberg for introducing this legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> We also thank Chairman Cardin and Senators Leahy, Menendez, and Sanders for co-sponsoring it.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span> Because it addresses serious gaps in wildlife disease emergency response, we endorse it and urge its approval by the Senate.
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"">Sincerely,</span> <span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:EN-US;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"></span>
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