BiotechMashup

Porous borders are allowing vendors in Myanmar to offer a door-to-door delivery service for illegal wildlife products such as tiger bone wine to buyers in China, according to TRAFFIC's latest snapshot into wildlife trade in China.

Researchers have sequenced DNA "barcodes" for as many as 25 hunted wildlife species, providing information that can be used to better monitor the elusive trade of wildlife products, or bushmeat.

(American Museum of Natural History) A collaborative study led by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified evidence of retroviruses and herpesviruses in illegally imported wildlife products confiscated at several US international airports, including John F. Kennedy International Airport, George Bush Intercontinental-Houston and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International.

(Wildlife Conservation Society) A paper by noted WCS conservationist Elizabeth Bennett says that an immense, increasingly sophisticated illegal trade in wildlife parts conducted by organized crime, coupled with antiquated enforcement methods, are decimating the world's most beloved species including rhinos, tigers and elephants on a scale never before seen.

(World Wildlife Fund) China received praise here today from the International Tiger Coalition for promising to work with its neighbors to end tiger trade and bring back wild tigers.

(Wildlife Conservation Society) The Wildlife Conservation Society announced today that critically endangered alligators in China have a new chance for survival. The WCS's Bronx Zoo, in partnership with two other North American parks and the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Management of the State Forestry Administration of China, has successfully reintroduced alligators into the wild that are now multiplying on their own.

(University of Colorado at Boulder) Researchers from several institutions including the University of Colorado at Boulder have sequenced DNA "barcodes" for as many as 25 hunted wildlife species, providing information that can be used to better monitor the elusive trade of wildlife products, or bushmeat.

(World Wildlife Fund) A little-known Iranian salamander is poised to become the first example of a species requiring international government protection because of e-commerce -- a major threat to endangered wildlife that authorities are struggling to address.

Researchers have published the DNA barcodes of commonly traded bushmeat from Central Africa and South America. DNA barcodes -- short genetic sequences that can be readily obtained and pinpoint the species of origin of any product -- offer wildlife enforcement a new tool in the international trade of wildlife.