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Associated Press EL PASO — An airman who was training at Fort Bliss for deployment to Iraq died of a deadly virus linked to rodents, an Air Force official said today. Senior Airman Leonard Hankerson Jr., 24, a security forces patrolman, died Feb. 11 at William Beaumont Army Hospital in El Paso. He was assigned to a squadron at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Ariz. Autopsy results confirmed last week that Hankerson had hantavirus, said Lt. Col. John Paradis, a Luke Air Force Base spokesman. The disease is transmitted to humans when they inhale particles of dried urine, feces...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey man who recently returned from a trip to Liberia has died of an illness that had not been detected in the United States since 1989 but is common in West Africa, state health officials said Thursday. The man died of Lassa fever, a virus spread through rat droppings or urine that can be passed to other people through bodily fluids but not through causal contact, officials said. The 38-year-old man from the Trenton area was not identified by authorities. It is unlikely that other passengers on the man's flight back from Africa or...

The city of Santa Monica, Calif., is in trouble with environmentalists for the way they eradicated their squirrel population: An unannounced, weekend fumigation of the animals' burrows under Palisades Park. City officials had debated the rodent overpopulation issue for more than a year, trying to find a solution which involved neither poison nor pain, reports KCBS-TV's Jennifer Sabih.

Some Cook County employees are treating their workspaces like a pigpen -- and that's why they've got rodent problems. That's the essence of a news release issued Tuesday by Chicago's Streets & Sanitation Department that set off a war of words with Cook County Clerk David Orr. On Monday, the Sun-Times reported complaints from clerk employees working in the basement of the City Hall/Cook County building who said they've been seeing rats in the office. But a surprise city inspection Tuesday turned up no sign of rats. Instead, city officials said, they found mice feces as well as "open food"...

You might not be mindful of them when you cut through alleys to get home from work or school. You might not be thinking about them when you order food in your favorite restaurant. But rats could be frequenting the same restaurants and walkways you do. There are an estimated 500,000 of these furry fiends scurrying around the city, according to a city spokesman. Believe it or not, that's an improvement. "A few years ago we had 1.5 million rats, and 20 years ago there were 6 or 7 million," said Matt Smith, spokesman for the Department of Streets and...

A DeKalb County health inspector found a frozen guinea pig tucked in a freezer at La Sabrosa restaurant, 2857 Buford Highway. According to the inspector's report, the chef said the guinea pig was for his personal consumption, but he could not remember where he bought it or produce a receipt. Inspector Karen Nguyen noted that she "advised operators to keep receipts for all purchases. Any food used for personal consumption must be stored separate and labeled 'personal foods.' " The restaurant scored an 87 on the December inspection, up from its previous 79. An Internet search reveals that, yes indeed,...

The SPCA and police are still puzzled about why three squirrels were nailed to a wooden fence in a University Park neighborhood. The dead squirrels were found Dec. 23, pinned by their shoulders to the fence, which lines an alley near University Boulevard and Hillcrest Road. Police say they're limited in what they can do because they're not sure whether a crime was committed. "Domesticated animals, such as dogs or cats, are protected by the animal-cruelty law," University Park police Officer Lita Snellgrove said. "Squirrels aren't part of that."

Eastpointe Squirrel Feeder Faces Charges Again Woman's Case Drew Widespread Attention In 2002POSTED: 10:00 am EST November 8, 2005 EASTPOINTE, Mich. -- The city of Eastpointe has hauled one of its better-known animal lovers back into court. Luminita Marinas (pictured, right), 65, faces criminal charges of setting out walnuts for squirrels near her home. She faces a maximum fine of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. In a case that drew widespread media coverage in 2002, Marinas pleaded guilty to littering for feeding squirrels. Marinas was placed on six months' probation and fined $250. City officials worked out...

It seemed like a good idea. Let a lone rat loose on a rodent-free island and then figure out how to kill it. That way, when other islands are invaded by rats, you'll know what to do. Scientists figured they'd trap this foot-long varmint in no time. Eighteen weeks later, they finally trapped it with some fresh penguin bait. On another island. Rodents are a problem just about everywhere. In New Zealand, at least 11 islands have been invaded by Norway rats since 1980, in each case after rats from earlier invasions had been eradicated. The invaders disrupt local ecosystems....

Defend your nuts: a parable on property rights and hippies Suppose you were a squirrel. You would work hard to find the biggest nuts, and then stash those large nuts in secret places. You'd only do so if you had a high degree of assurance that those nuts would be there, unrotted and ready to eat, when your life depended on them. You'd have to depend on other squirrels to not steal your nuts, and assure them that you would do likewise. Now suppose that a pack of liberal chinchillas, calling themselves the Friends of the Forest, came along preaching...

Up to 40,000 people are facing hunger in northern Nicaragua because rats have devoured their crops, officials say. The plague has affected Miskito Indian communities which live by the Rio Coco river on the country's Caribbean coast. Last week, the area - which is also regularly hit by flooding - was declared a disaster area, but the rats have yet to be exterminated. A UN team has visited the area to see how much aid is needed. Nicaragua is one of the world's poorest countries. The UN mission is due to release its findings in the capital, Managua, on Friday...

A Newcastle artist has gone into partnership with her pet gerbil on her latest artwork. Sally Madge's gerbil eating its way through a 1933 edition of the New Illustrated Universal Reference Book. The gerbil, which has no name, is just doing what comes naturally, building its nest, at Sally's home. But it is the unwitting star of an exhibition called A Gerbil's Guide to the Galaxy at Newcastle's Waygood Gallery. On display are remnants of the 72-year old book, an empty cage containing a nest of book fragments and a video webcast of the gerbil in action. Sally says she's...

'Oddball rodent' in Laos takes scientists by surprise By John Noble Wilford The New York Times THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005 They live in the forests and limestone outcrops of Laos. With long whiskers, stubby legs and a long, furry tail, they are rodents but unlike any seen before by wildlife scientists. They are definitely not rats or squirrels, only vaguely like a guinea pig or a chinchilla. And they often show up in Laotian outdoor markets being sold for food. There, visiting scientists came upon the animals and determined that they represented a rare find: an entire new family of...

Furry "pocket pets" like hamsters, mice and rats have sickened up to 30 people in at least 10 states with dangerous multidrug-resistant bacteria, health officials are warning. It is the first known outbreak of salmonella illness tied to such pets and reveals a previously unknown public health risk, officials said. Many of the victims were children; six were hospitalized for vomiting, fever and severe diarrhea. Some passed the illness to others. The germ they had was resistant to five drugs spanning several classes of antibiotics. "This is likely an underrepresentation of how large the problem is," because others who were...

Scientists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History have discovered fossils of a mouse-size mammal that dug and burrowed in search of tasty insects during the Jurassic Age, 150 million years ago. The extinct species has been dubbed Popeye. Its tastes appeared to favor termites, not spinach as its cartoon namesake. But like the famous Sailor Man, this creature has massive forearms, an adaptation that helped it dig.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Pet hamsters are a potential source of serious infection, U.S. health officials warned on Thursday. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news - web sites) (CDC) describe the case of a 3-year-old boy from Colorado who came down with tularemia after being bitten by a pet hamster. Tularemia is caused by the bug Francisella tularensis, which is one of the most infectious germs known and for that reason is considered a potential biologic terrorism agent. As outlined in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the boy's family purchased six hamsters...

A mouse loose in a Somerset County house may have escaped injury early Tuesday morning, but a woman who lives there wasn't as fortunate. State police at Somerset said 43-year-old Donald Eugene Rugg was attempting to shoot the rodent with a .22-caliber handgun inside the home he shares with 35-year-old Cathy Jo Harris, along Chicken Bone Road, in Lower Turkeyfoot Township, shortly after midnight. As he fired the weapon, Harris reportedly walked into the path of the discharged round and was struck in the right arm with birdshot.

Eliot Spitzer may believe he is a hero to the common man. He certainly loves to embark on the highly visible crusade. The medieval imagery is suitable, in this case, because his latest stroke of genious may bring back one of the worst features of medieval European History; vermin-bourne illness. His brilliance is described as follows: THE next time you see rats roaming around public housing units in New York City, think of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. He and a handful of his colleagues in other states are working hard to make the city's public housing safe — for rats,...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. SALT LAKE CITY - It's tiny, with a long tail, two sets of whiskers and powerful jaws. And it may just be the newest species of mouse, found on a Philippine island by a group of researchers that included a Utah man. Eric Rickart, the Utah Museum of Natural History's curator of vertebrates, said the 15-gram rodent with a 4-inch tail and strong, sharp toes is unlike any other mouse found on any Philippine island. "We were lucky to catch it," he said. After a month of study from late April...

<p>As part of an ambitious effort to identify genes that cause disease in dogs and humans, scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle analyzed DNA collected from 414 dogs representing 85 breeds, including some of the most popular. The findings have sent reverberations though the ranks of dog fanciers, who primp and preen their beloved companions for shows and take great pride in their pedigrees.</p>