About 42 percent of these parks and protected areas are found in developing countries. Already, sea level rise, severe weather changes, expanded farmlands, poverty and increased regional conflicts are affecting many of these parks. The governments of the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have already contributed funds. A grant from the UN Global Environment Facility is being finalized. PALN will help them learn how other park managers and scientists are coping and adapting to these changes.
Quick detection is critical to preventing spread of the disease.
It took three weeks to identify the recent outbreak in the United Kingdom and six weeks in Taiwan. Dr. Horn said the USDA has also made a major breakthrough in vaccinations. In the past, vaccinations could confuse efforts to diagnose the disease, and could also spread the disease in some cases. A new vaccine candidate may forestall these problems. Senator Dick Lugar, the Indiana Republican who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that last December he visited labs in Russian where Soviet era research was conducted on 14 different strains of foot and mouth disease.