Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Numerous cases of coronavirus infections in cats, dogs, and other animals have surfaced since the pandemic's beginning. The full reach of COVID-19 throughout the animal kingdom, however, hasn't been well understood, but a new tool offers us clues.
Some answers can be found in a new worldwide database made in collaboration between researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.
The first database of its kind, it tracks COVID-19 among animals and shows as of Wednesday evening there have been an estimated 2015 “infections” (virus present) and “exposures” (antibodies present) combined worldwide so far in 31 distinct species from 39 countries. The database notes that the number of cases in mink is inconsistently reported and likely underestimated.
According to the statistics, the estimated disease death rate among the 610 animal outbreaks tracked to date has been close to 3 per cent, with the majority of animal symptoms appearing as respiratory, gastrointestinal, or behavioural problems.
“The dashboard intends to support public education about the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission between humans and animals and raise public awareness about possible wildlife conservation issues posed by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” researchers say in a study accompanying the initial dashboard, published in the journal Nature in July.
The documented infections and exposures included in the dashboard were largely verified with laboratory tests and offer a solid base to build on, but researchers say it may be impossible to know the full impact of the coronavirus in the wild.
The animals with the lion’s share of cases are mink, followed closely by cats and dogs, but cases have also been documented in beavers, hamsters, tigers, lions, and white-tailed deer.
The dashboard notes 86 cases documented in Canada, with 40 cases in white-tailed deer, 33 in mink, 12 in cats, and one infection in a dog.
The dashboard also shows which virus variant each animal was infected with.
"The continuous analysis of (COVID-19) occurrence data in animals is especially critical to adapting monitoring, surveillance and vaccination programs for animals and humans in a timely manner and evaluating the developing threat (COVID-19) represents for public and animal health as well as biodiversity and conservation," the study notes.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.