Help Stamp Out Deadly Virus by Cleaning Bird Baths and Tables
Salisbury Journal
24 Sep 2006
Roland Batten
Photo courtesy of Nigel Blake
There is growing concern that a deadly virus may be sweeping the countryside causing the deaths of hundreds of wild birds. The disease is hitting finches and sparrows in particular and scientists are urging householders to clean bird baths and bird tables in a bid to stamp it out. The virus, trichomoniasis, poses no risk to humans but it can lead to a painful death for wild birds, which can pick up the disease through water.
The virus attacks the throat, causing the bird problems with swallowing and later with breathing. Wildlife vets are investigating the cause of the outbreak, which appears to be widespread across the UK but particularly in the West Country and the Midlands. Members of the public have reported finding bodies of finches and sparrows in their gardens. Scientists are wondering whether the unusually hot summer has led to the increase in the number of cases because it is spread by birds sharing baths and feeders.
The RSPB has urged bird lovers to regularly wash out bird baths and cleaners as this may help to halt the spread of the disease. The disease is common in pigeons and doves but this year it has spread to finches and sparrows. It can also be picked up by birds of prey, which may feed on an infected pigeon. Bird lovers are advised not to touch or handle any sick or dead bird they may find but to contact the Garden Bird Health Initiative on www.ufaw.org.uk
DNR Plans to Test Ducks and Geese for Bird Flu
Pioneer Press (Posted by TwinCities.com)
24 Sep 2006
Chris Niskanen
This fall, hundreds of Minnesota waterfowl hunters will be asked by the Department of Natural Resources to have their dead birds checked for a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza known as "bird flu." The DNR plans to test 1,000 wild ducks and geese this year as part of a nationwide strategy for detecting the avian flu known as HP-H5N1, or bird flu. The flu strain originated in Asia and has spread through Europe and Africa.
So far, the bird flu has killed millions of birds worldwide and more than 100 humans. Most human cases have originated from direct contact with poultry, though health experts fear the virus could mutate and become transmittable between humans and cause a pandemic. The bird flu hasn't been detected in North America, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior have developed a national strategy to look for bird flu by sampling wild birds in all of the nation's major flyways.
The Minnesota DNR received $100,000 from the USDA to sample 1,000 wild ducks and geese this year; another 1,000 wild birds, mostly on federal wildlife refuges, will be tested by USDA workers. The DNR will sample wild ducks during the opening weekend of the Minnesota waterfowl season, which opens Saturday. DNR workers will be stationed around the state, asking hunters to help with the survey during regular bag checks. The test is simple.
Telegram.com
24 Sep 2006
Pamela H. Sacks
Photo courtesy of Ed Collier
Dr. Mark Pokras leaned in for a close look at an X-ray of a loon carcass as veterinary student Thea Doidge peered over his shoulder. Ms. Doidge was performing a necropsy on the bird at the Wildlife Clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton. She had reported that the loon had numerous gunshot wounds around the head and neck. It is illegal to shoot a loon in North America.
This bird had a band on its leg and was being monitored by a research group in Maine. Dr. Pokras wanted Ms. Doidge to determine the type of firearm that had been used, along with the gun’s caliber and the distance from which the loon was shot. He scoured the X-ray and found buckshot. “It is an entirely different episode,” he said, alluding to a pattern of loon shootings that had occurred.
The loon’s carcass was part of a study called the Sea Bird Ecological Assessment Network, or SEANET. The clinic has taken on the project in order to understand threats to sea bird populations. Most of the species are not economically important, Dr. Pokras said, but are ecologically significant. “We need to know what’s going on under normal circumstances so that if there are threats — a climate change, an oil disaster, exposure to contaminants — we can work to mitigate those problems,” he said.
Fighting Rabies in Wildlife a Costly Fix
News-Record.com
25 Sep 2006
Joe Killian
With confirmed rabies infections in Guilford County at a record high of 30 so far this year, health officials say they have been discussing whether to vaccinate wild animals — not just pets — as a way to address public concern about the disease. The plan being considered is a localized version of a federal program already in place in part of western North Carolina. Guilford’s environmental health director, Tobin Shepherd, said talks have centered on the idea of placing vaccinated bait in rabies hot spots across the county.
The goal: keep the disease — especially among raccoons, who are its most common carriers — from spreading in the wild. "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has done it in our state, dropping vaccinated bait from planes in very rural areas," Shepherd said. "I’ve talked with some concerned people and it seems to me there’s some momentum to do it on a community level rather than an aerial drop." Shepherd said such a program might go a long way toward helping people feel more secure, even though the focus on immunizing pets is more effective.
"Our main goal is to keep the disease out of pets, because that’s how it gets into our homes and into the human population," Shepherd said. Ruth Hoxley, 34, of Greensboro , said she supports a wildlife vaccination program. "Even though my dogs are up on all their shots, I don’t feel safe letting the wild animal populations get so infected we have them all over the place," said Hoxley, who walks her two dogs daily in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, where a rabid coyote was captured earlier this summer.
Testing for Dangerous Avian Flu a Ducky Time in Walla Walla
TheOlympian.com
24 Sep 2006
Don Davis
When a dozen-or-so video and print newshounds crept close to gawk with open lenses, the four mallards in the semi-submerged, wire trap quacked, flapped and splashed with noticeable agitation. One frenetic fowl somehow worked its way into the small end of the whole-corn baited, funnel-style trap, slipped through the larger opening and flew quacking away. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife experts simply aimed to examine, tag and test them for a highly pathogenic avian flu virus before tossing them into free flight.
Ah, yes. Well, the test would be the thing. It involves a cotton swab and a search for the virus, alas, inside the duck. The virus, a serious strain of avian flu that hurdled from birds to humans in Asia about a decade ago, continues to pose important questions for wildlife and health specialists. Nevertheless, the mallards trapped for testing recently at Winchester Wasteway, a swampy area west of Moses Lake, apparently preferred to be elsewhere.
Yet, each duck's demeanor changed significantly after being lifted from a trap, placed into a holding cage and carried 50 yards to the test station. That's when WDFW waterfowl specialist Mikal Moore cradled each duck in the crook of her arm, and it either relaxed or, as one harsh newshound suggested, it resigned itself to its fate. Either way, the mallards lay quietly while Moore explained steps of the test that include identifying the species (she knows her waterfowl), sex (orange bills for females of a certain age; other more technical markings, or, if necessary, a more probing examination) and age (feather development and wear, size, weight, etc.).
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