Dog’s death cues algae-toxin tests

A Cleveland-area lab told Metro Parks officials yesterday that it detected toxins produced by algae in a Three Creeks Metro Park pond where a dog drank water and later died…

..Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, are common in Ohio lakes and streams but grow thick in water after feeding on phosphorus from manure, fertilizer and sewage that wash into waterways. The algae can excrete liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people and kill pets, fish and wildlife.

A preliminary Ohio Department of Agriculture report concluded that the dog died of severe anemia attributed to internal blood loss consistent with a bleeding disorder. The report said algae blooms can produce toxins causing liver damage that affects blood clotting, but rat poison can also affect it…

…Metro Parks also will test water samples from lakes at Prairie Oaks and Battelle Darby Creek metro parks, Deputy Director Larry Peck said. Dogs swim in those lakes.

Peck said he didn’t know the concentrations of toxins found in the Heron Pond water but that they were at potentially lethal levels.

The fatality was the first reported pet death in Ohio this year that might be associated with a toxic-algae bloom…more

Sources of toxic algae: farms, cities

Tracking phosphorus, courtesy Columbus Dispatch

Scientists know what causes the toxic blue-green algae that stain western Lake Erie every summer. 

It’s phosphorus, a byproduct of sewage, fertilizers and manure…

At stake is Erie’s $10 billion-a-year fishing and tourism industry. Blue-green algae excrete liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people and kill pets, fish and other wildlife. The algae also help create an expanding oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in Lake Erie where fish cannot live.

Manure that rains wash off farms is considered the prime source of phosphorus in Grand Lake St. Marys, a 13,000-acre lake in western Ohio where the state has posted algae warnings for swimmers since 2009.

The current “bloom” of algae in Lake Erie has prompted health warnings at public beaches at Maumee Bay State Park and Kelleys Island…

Jeffrey Reutter, director of Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Laboratory of Ohio State University, said the Geological Survey’s findings don’t address the fact that the Detroit River supplies 80 percent of Lake Erie’s water.

That much water, he said, dilutes all the phosphorus going into the lake and doesn’t create algae blooms. He said satellite images that show algae spreading from the mouth of the Maumee prove his point.

“The Maumee River, it brings in 3 percent of the flow to the lake but probably 40 percent of the (lake’s) sediment,” he said.

“You could make a big improvement in the Detroit River, but you’re still going to have the harmful algae problem in Maumee Bay.”…more

Warnings back at 2 beaches on Buckeye Lake

algae warnings, courtesy Columbus Dispatch

Toxic blue-green algae have re-emerged at Buckeye Lake, prompting state officials to post health warnings yesterday at two public beaches…

The microcystin concentrations do exceed a state-set standard of 6 parts per billion in water, meant to protect children…

Blue-green algae are common in most Ohio lakes and streams, but they can grow thick feeding on phosphorus contained in sewage, manure and fertilizers that rains wash into streams.

The algae can excrete as many as four types of liver and nerve toxins in water, which can sicken people and kill pets, fish and wildlife…

Last summer, the state posted warnings at 20 state waterways…more

Deer Birth Control Could Prevent Collisions

white-tailed deer fawn

…A birth control injection for deer puts them completely out of the mood to mate for up to five years without a booster. GonaCon, as the birth control is called, even eliminates dangerous and destructive courtship behaviors responsible for the autumn increase in collisions between cars and deer…

…The vaccine causes deer to produce antibodies that destroy the GnRH before it can ever trigger the sex hormones. USDA studies on white-tailed deer, free-ranging California ground squirrels, captive Norway rats, domestic and feral swine and wild horses have shown GonaCon to be effective in a wide range of animals.

The birth control vaccine could even be useful for pets and domesticated animals that have not been spayed or neutered. In cats, for example, scent-spraying, fighting, wandering, and caterwauling could be controlled…more

Adams County animal hoarders resurface with more dogs

Evelyn and Joyce Nixon

WEST UNION, Ohio -- Assured by Evelyn and Joyce Nixon they would no longer have pets, Adams County Court of Common Pleas allowed the women probation following a 2010 animal hoarding case which saw more than 60 animals seized the week of March 23, 2010 in West Union, Ohio and Lynx, Ohio.

The women have been arrested again, charged with probation violation after about 30 dogs were found in their possession, official said.

Evelyn Nixon, 73, was allowed to enter an Alford plea in November 2010, which acknowledged there was evidence sufficient to convict; Joyce Nixon, 56, was found guilty and was sentenced in January to probation, with the same stipulations, officials said…more

Mazzola’s animals relocated (with video)

COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP — The area around 9978 North Marks Road will never be the same because the wild animals that belonged to the late Sam Mazzola, who died on July 10, are no longer there.

Mazzola’s collection of exotic animals such as lions, bears, and tigers are well-known throughout the area because he often invited neighbors to see them.

Since his death, three bears were relocated to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keenesburg, Colo.

Pat Craig, the executive director of the animal sanctuary, said that a woman who said that she was Mazzola’s girlfriend called his sanctuary and told them that they were looking for a place for his bears. The sanctuary is one of only two in the country to take in bears...see video