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WS has joined with the FAA and the U.S. Air 

 Force in an effort to reduce bird-aircraft collisions 

 at airports. 



More than 2,500 bird strikes were 

 reported by the U.S. Air Force 

 during that span. Eighty percent of 

 aircraft-wildlife collisions are 

 believed to go unreported. In all, 

 these collisions cause millions of 

 dollars' worth of damage. The 

 potential for human injury and 

 death is increased significantly 

 when wildlife is not kept away from 

 airports and runways. 

 • Wildlife-borne diseases of 

 significant concern to humans 

 include rabies, bubonic plague, and 

 histoplasmosis. These diseases 

 can be carried, reservoired, or 

 transmitted by wildlife to other 

 wildlife, domestic livestock, and 

 people. During 1996, the U.S. 

 Public Health Service's Centers for 

 Disease Control and Prevention 

 reported 7,124 cases of animal 

 rabies in 49 States, the District of 

 Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Of 

 these cases, nearly 92 percent 

 were in wildlife. Rabies prevention 

 costs between $230 million and $1 

 billion a year in the United States. 



Many people do not realize that 

 everyone is adversely affected by 

 the actions of wildlife at one time or 

 another. Every consumer pays 

 more for commodities when 

 supplies are decreased or dam- 

 aged by wildlife. However, the total 

 value of the damage is extremely 

 difficult to estimate on a national 

 scale. The U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture's (USDA) National 

 Agricultural Statistics Service 

 (NASS) and other researchers 

 have previously documented 

 annual predation losses to selected 

 commodities across the United 

 States. Annual losses include more 

 than $140 million worth of blueber- 

 ries, apples, grapes, corn, and 

 sunflowers, and more than $14 

 million worth of catfish and trout. 

 NASS estimates that wildlife- 

 caused damage to U.S. agriculture 

 (excluding forestry) is worth 

 between $600 million and $1 .6 

 billion a year. 



