In a previous thread, I posted a piece of news about a number of wild birds found dead at Long Island. Here, an update from LATIMES.
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N.Y. fears bird epidemic - Avian reovirus is suspected in the death of hundreds of crows throughout the state, wildlife officials say.
By Delthia Ricks, Newsday
January 4, 2008
MELVILLE, N.Y. -- A mysterious die-off of hundreds of crows throughout New York state has been linked to the avian reovirus, a pathogen that has threatened the poultry industry in the past, relentlessly sweeping through flocks, state wildlife officials said Thursday.
The virus is not likely to jump the species barrier to infect humans.
However, state health officials are taking no chances, and scientists at Wadsworth Center, a division of the state Health Department, were studying the virus.
State wildlife pathologist Ward Stone, who was instrumental nearly a decade ago in identifying the pathogen that turned out to be the West Nile virus, said the sudden sweep of death among crows had caught scientists by surprise.
"Initially, I didn't know what it was," Stone told Newsday on Thursday.
"You really don't know until you do the post-mortem examinations," which include preliminary viral typing, he said.
Additional specimens are being sent to a federal wildlife laboratory in Madison, Wis., which is expected to provide further molecular details about the strain.
"It's causing necrotizing enteritis," Stone said, referring to a severe hemorrhagic intestinal disorder that leaves few survivors.
The virus is feared by executives in the broiler chicken industry, which produces most of the poultry sold in the United States.
Epidemics have swept through flocks, destroying potential profits.
Stone added that various reovirus strains have been identified in the United States and Canada in recent years but only a small number of crows in New York contracted the virus and died.
Invasive Species Web Report::
Red tide also was implicated in the manatee die-off in southwest Florida in 1996. A sand dune at Shoreham, Long Island, New York, is covered with kudzu.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/agri/invaspecies.htmHOME |
Now, a dramatic shift in viral spread, which became most noticeable shortly after Christmas, has all the makings of a bird epidemic.
Crows not only have died but sometimes have succumbed in large groups.
Stone suspects when temperatures warm as expected next week, causing snow to melt in many upstate communities, more dead crows will be found.
So far, dead crows have been found in Albany, Dutchess, Jefferson, Montgomery, Orange and Steuben counties. The largest number of dead birds -- about 100 -- have been found in Poughkeepsie.
Stone thinks it's only a matter of time before dead crows are spotted on Long Island and in Queens and Manhattan. He also suspects the infection will sweep into Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Health officials on Long Island have not found anything suspicious. Wendy Ladd, spokeswoman for the Suffolk County Health Department, said communities were already aware that dead crows would be reported because of the summertime spread of West Nile disease.
"We have not seen any increase in dead crows," Ladd said Thursday. "We have a bird hotline for people to call and we haven't gotten any calls about it."
Cynthia Brown, spokeswoman for the Nassau County Health Department, also reported silent hotlines. "I have not heard any unusual crow kill-offs," she said.
Crows, Stone said, tend to live in large social groups in winter composed of smaller families and individual birds. Such clustering helps explain why so many crows are dying simultaneously. Crows tend to live in small families during other seasons.
No other types of birds have been affected, but state biologists were monitoring ravens, magpies and blue jays, which are closely related to crows and have similar nesting habits.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-crows4jan04,1,758083.story?track=rss
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This is another interesting story written by the same author about the importance of avian flyways:
Drug-resistant E. coli found in Arctic birds
BY DELTHIA RICKS
January 2, 2008
Resistance to antibiotics is so pervasive that scientists now report having found evidence of drug-repelling E.coli in Arctic birds, the bacteria having been passed by migratory fowl that circumnavigate the globe along centuries-old flyways.
Coveney: The Effects of Pollution on Animals Lesson::
oil coating tens of thousands of sea birds and killing at least 1000 sea otters. Have you heard about the recent lobster die-off on Long Island?
http://www.pat-med.k12.ny.us/schools/hs/departments/science/coveney/5Animals.htmHOME |
Long Island Sound Study: Sound Health::
about the lobster die-off in the Sound, visit New York and Connecticut Sea Grants Coastal Birds: To learn more about endangered bird species in New York and
http://www.longislandsoundstudy.net/soundhealth/06/index.htmHOME |
Reporting in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, scientists in Sweden traveled to vast regions of the frigid polar ice cap in search of species they hoped had been spared exposure to drug-resistant strains. They were surprised when they discovered widespread antibiotic-resistant E.coli in Arctic-dwelling birds never exposed to the drugs.
Maria Sjolund of Central Hospital in Vaxjo, Sweden, went on a series of Arctic expeditions, collecting mostly fecal samples from 97 birds in three geographic regions: northeastern Siberia; Point Barrow, Alaska; and northern Greenland. Although the locations are thousands of miles apart, they are intimately linked through looping migratory flyways.
West Nile Encephalitis bird diseases::
and east to Suffolk County on Long Island and the East Haven area of Connecticut. in Ohio alone in what one wildlife official called a major die-off.
http://www.wildlifedamagecontrol.net/westnileenceph.phpHOME |
Sjolund suggested her finding adds credence to the notion that antibiotic resistance is global -- and that virtually no region of the world is unscathed. Moreover, she and her team noted that while most of the emphasis on drug resistance in recent decades has focused on antibiotic misuse by humans, there now is evidence for the epidemic spread of drug-resistant strains by other species.
Dr. Roy Steigbigel, a professor of medicine and microbiology at Stony Brook University Medical Center, said migratory birds expose Arctic flocks to drug-resistant E.coli through excrement.
"The prevalence is somewhat surprising, but the fact that it has occurred is not," added Steigbigel, who pointed to travel as a primary method through which a wide range of infectious organisms are spread. He said bird flu, which has reached epidemic proportions in flocks worldwide, reaches diverse parts of the world via the same freeways in the sky.
"We live in a world of migration of all sorts of animals, birds and humans," Steigbigel said. "We had an example recently of multi-drug-resistant TB. I see all of it as a continuum: as birds migrating on wings to humans migrating in airplanes."
Dr. Stuart B. Levy, president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, said there is no way of stopping migrating flocks. "Birds feeding on feces will carry it and deliver it elsewhere." Birds also become exposed through stepping in infected feces.
Migratory birds are exposed through numerous sources, including food and water, in parts of the world where the drugs are rampantly misused by people.
Levy, whose center is at Tufts University in Boston, helps consumers understand the dangers of drug-resistance -- such as fewer drugs remaining available to treat serious infections -- and emphasized that resistance is widespread throughout the environment. Even waterways have not been spared, he said. Sewage and agricultural runoff have served as sources of exposure for fish.
From Promed:
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UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS, AVIAN - USA: (NEW YORK) POISON
A ProMED-mail post
[1]
Date: 4 Jan 2008
Source: Official release from Cornell University [edited]
A total of 3 birds collected near a condominium complex on Staten Island were submitted to the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center and Anatomic Pathology. The birds were identified as grackles (_Quiscalus quiscula_).
Generally, they were in good body condition with minimal lesions noted grossly. A small amount of corn and other material was detected within the ventriculus of each bird. Capillary GC/MS of extracted stomach contents revealed the presence of 4-aminopyradine (trade name Avitrol(R)). 4-Aminopyradine is an avicide [bird pesticide], usually mixed with cracked-corn bait.
Clinical signs of avitrol toxicosis may occur within 12 minutes of ingestion and include vocalizations [distress calls], loss of muscular control, and inability to fly or walk. Birds may die in 30 to 90 minutes. Use of this product is currently illegal in the city of New York.
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Communicated by:
Karyn Bischoff DVM, MS, D.ABVT, Joseph Ebel Jr., and Belinda S Thompson DVM - New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory Cornell University
Rachel M Peters DVM, PhD - Section of Anatomic Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine Cornell University
******
[2]
Date: 4 Jan 2007
Source: Newsday [edited]
The dozens of birds found dead in Great Kills and in Eltingville last month [December 2007] were killed by an overdose of a toxic chemical banned in New York City 8 years ago, the city's Health Department announced tonight.
A sampling of blackbirds from Great Kills and starlings from
Eltingville were sent to the Animal Health Diagnostic Center
in Ithaca, NY, a little over a week ago.
City Health officials concluded that dead birds like these found on the street and sidewalk at Richmond Avenue and Amboy Road in Eltingville Christmas Eve were felled by a banned, toxic chemical, Avitrol. Researchers found the birds consumed a toxic dose of Avitrol, a chemical frightening agent used to remove birds from a given location.
Birds eating the treated bait, such as corn kernels, will emit
distress and alarm cries and visual displays used by their species.
This will frighten the flock and cause them to leave the site,
according to the chemical maker's Web site.
In 2000, then Gov. George Pataki banned use of the drug in the city.
Approximately 50 birds were first discovered on 21 Dec 2007 along a street in Great Kills. On Christmas Eve [24 Dec 2007], 7 starlings were found dead on the corner of Richmond Avenue and Amboy Road, Eltingville.
[Byline: Anne Marie Calzolari and Mark Stein]
Communicated by:
Steve Grenard
*******
[3]
Date: 5 Jan 2008
Source: Staten Island Advance [edited]
Who spread chemical that killed Staten Island birds?
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The state Department of Environmental Conservation has launched an investigation to determine who was using a banned toxin to scatter birds from Staten Island's South Shore, causing dozens of blackbirds and starlings to die last month [December 2007] [For video see URL above].
State Department of Environmental Conservation spokesman Yancey Roy said today that the agency is trying to pinpoint who may have used Avitrol and where, but declined to discuss specifics regarding the investigation and said that there are no immediate suspects.
Avitrol, a chemical frightening agent used to prevent birds from gathering at given locations, has been banned in New York City since 2000.
The city Health Department first began looking for what caused 50 birds to die along Wiman Avenue in Great Kills on 21 Dec 2007. A total of 21 and 7 starlings suffered the same fate on the corner of Richmond Avenue and Amboy Road in Eltingville on Christmas Eve [24 Dec 2007]. The agency announced Thursday night [3 Jan 2008] that some
of the birds tested at the state Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University in Ithaca had consumed a toxic dose of Avitrol.
Neighbors said that large amounts of pigeons often converge around Richmond County Savings Bank's Eltingville branch on the corner of Richmond and Amboy and some wondered if workers there are the culprits. A bank manager said bank employees are not responsible for
putting out Avitrol.
Avitrol Corporation claims that birds that eat bait treated with the chemical will emit distress and alarm calls and visual displays that frighten and scatter flocks of birds. It is used by residents or businesses who want to rid their properties of large gatherings of birds.
Ed Johnson, science curator at the Staten Island Museum and coordinator of the annual Christmas Bird Count, said there are very strict laws protecting migratory birds here and whoever put out Avitrol should be punished.
"It's somebody who is bothered by flocks of birds and doesn't really care" about the law, Johnson said, noting that the museum needs state and federal permits to collect and examine dead birds for research purposes. "If they find [who did it], they should prosecute them."
[Byline: Glenn Nyback]
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Communicated by:
Steve Grenard
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ProMED-mail
[Many thanks to the many folks that worked on locating the cause of these deaths. - Mod.TG
Staten Island map showing Great Kills:
Images of affected birds at Source URLs. - Mod.JW]
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Welcome Appleseed. :)
Interesting article.
F1, one source is: http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hscoli0103,0,454011.story
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Thank you Appleseed for thr quality and pertinence of your post and Welcome to Flu Trackers.
Snowy Owl
AlaskaDenise and Snowy Owl thank you for your kind welcome. This is a great site and I am so glad I found it!
Welcome Appleseed!
Do you have a link for this article?
Hello there Florida1. I am new to this site, so I hope I am posting correctly. I think this is the link you want. It is the story I referenced earlier about avian flyways that was published in Newsday by author Delthia Ricks. Here it is:
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/thursday/health/ny-hscoli035523448jan03,0,95174.story
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