“State wildlife agencies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Wednesday were testing tissue samples from more than 1,000 mallard ducks that are dying in a bizarre cluster along a southeastern Idaho creek bed, hoping to rule out an avian flu outbreak.”
“The massive outbreak is puzzling scientists because only mallard ducks are dying. Golden eagles, geese, magpies, crows and other birds in the area all remain healthy” http://tinyurl.com/ycqgmb
tjclaw---could you post this in the News thread also?
Pneumonia and endocarditis - might it be staphylococcus?
.
Latest update…now over 2000 and rising. And they are being a little less certain re it not being bird flu. Here’s a link.
http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=11851
(sorry, haven’t figured out the tinyurl bit yet).
Also, I seem to recall a study back about 6 weeks ago regarding which ducks were more susceptible to H5N1 and which weren’t. They actually infected a variety of wild waterfowl and chickens to test this in a controlled manner. I remember that teals did not get sick but shed virus when infected, and Mallards I think were the ones that got sickest, but memory may be faulty. I’ll try to look it up, but not quite sure where I saw it. Does anyone else remember such a study?
I found the article, but it was actually wood ducks not mallards that were most susceptible. Here’s the link (again, no tinyurl, sorry.)
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/avianflu/news/oct2506birds.html
found this tidbit.
Predominant oropharyngeal shedding has been consistently demonstrated with these H5N1 HPAI viruses (20), as it was in our study, and what impact this shedding pattern may have on environmental contamination, persistence in aquatic habitats, and transmission between birds (both wild and domestic) is unknown.
So, not new news after all, that wild bird shed more from respiratory means.
oops. maybe this is a newly released study. sorry.
count was up to 3400 dead as of yesterday afternoon. I posted a local, Salmon, Idaho news story about it at the new site that said that 2200 were disposed of on Tuesday and another 1200 MORE were disposed of on Wednesday afternoon. So from 12 on Friday found, that turned into 2200 by Tuesday which then rapidly added 1200 more within 24 hours! WOW! Does anyone know ANY bacterial infection that could be so infectious and do that to ducks in such a small time frame??? If it was somethign they ate, wouldn’t it have affected them all withint the same time frame? This increased exponentially over 5 days. Since nothing like this has EVER happened in the US to our knowledge, it seems to be screaming HP avian influenza of some type.
California had a similar die-off at the Salton Sea wildlife refuge earlier this year.
I believe it was blamed on environmental conditions and not virus.
FWIW
as a person who worked with waterfowl for thirty years, die-offs like this are not uncommon, in Calf, NV, and OR. Don’t assume it’s BF, it is most likely not.
Once upon a time… http://www.fws.gov/saltonsea/disease.html
http://www.fws.gov/saltonsea/habitats.html
nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information(ha! they mention the recent internet rumor oops about the 9 year old boy ! Instead of real news about current human cases…)
Finally an accurate headline!?
Bird flu downplayed as ducks die
…”The centre’s Kathryn Converse, a wildlife disease specialist, said early clues suggest the outbreak in Idaho is not linked to insecticides applied to surrounding croplands because it is not affecting other bird species or predators feeding on the dead ducks”…
(Guess they didn’t clean up the area soon enough! Hope they pay attention; to see if the preadators die now.)
Additional news recently posted on NewsNow out of Canada referring to the Idaho die off. All the same, but 2 paragraphs added:
In October, 243 mallard ducks died in a similar manner in Chilliwack, B.C.
Investigators at the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture’s animal health centre found those ducks died of pulmonary aspergillosis, a condition caused when fungal spores are inhaled. The ducks may have contracted the fungal infection while feeding in a cornfield.
that is supposed to say:
Could this be the cause here too?
Copied from another Dead Duck thread
Cloud9 — 14 December 2006, 07:06
Got this on Drudge Report.
A conference call is scheduled for 4 p.m. today, during which agency officials expect to receive the first lab results from carcasses sent to University of Idaho and University of Washington. Number of dead ducks climbs to 2,500
By Chip Thompson/South Idaho Press Thursday, December 14, 2006 12:38 PM CST http://tinyurl.com/vcz9z
It’s 4:00 now, central time. I take bets, results inconclusive. I agree with the others that say they will wait for markets to close on Friday if it’s H5N1. Wouldn’t be surprised if they needed about 17 or 18 more days to figure it out.
TIG: 243 ducks vs 3400 plus in 36 hours. Not the same thing, IMHO. This is almost exponential every 12 hours…that rate of replication is usually indicative of viral infections, not fungal. Maybe bacterial. As re the Salton Sea episode, I’m going to try to find that but I don’t think the die off was near as massive. I think this one bears watching, for sure. OLD Duck Hunter: are you saying that you are familiar with cases where this many mallard ducks died this fast in one area? Can you give an example, and what the cause of death turned out to be?
Last year at this time I told a friend that Pintail ducks would make big news late next year (now). I thought we would see a progressive die-off from northwestern Canada down into Oregon and Washington state. I didn’t expect it to just pop up here in the lower 48 without some kind of warning from up north. And certainly not mallards.
Moldy grain killed ducks, scientists say (CNN)
Two thousand mallard ducks in Idaho likely died after they ate moldy grain and contracted a fatal infection, scientists said Thursday.
Paul Slota, a wildlife expert with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center, said a fungal infection known as aspergillosis was the likely killer…
Hmmm. Maybe it is, really. However, having lived and worked on my hubby’s family dairy farm for years, I have never seen the ducks/geese the feed/grain. And this was a large dairy, averaging 350–400 milkers, raised the replacements, which I took care of. After the corn was harvested, is when we saw the geese/ducks attack the fields in groves. But they never came anywhere near the main farm. Only out in the fields. Just MHO,but this moldy grain “takes care of it” is getting rather repetitive.
And no other animals ate the grain?
Green Mom- oh yea. But the ducks/geese never came onto the farm where the grain/feed was. I’m guessing just too much activity for the birds.
Here’s a link describing aspergillosis in birds. In short, it says usually birds don’t get the acute form (which this would be) unless they are stressed or immune compromised. It says they get it from inhaling the spores, not eating them. It also says absolutely nothing about hemorrhaging from around heart as a symptom. There’s another source I need to read that has a little more data. I’ll get back with that link in a minute. Here’s the first: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1829&articleid=2384
Okay, so here’s another couple…pretty much the same, although this vet does say birds can get it by ingesting grain. Still says they generally have to be stressed or in poor health to get it however, so I have to wonder about 3400 wild birds suddenly dropping dead from it. Neither article says anything about how fast they would sicken and die from an acute infection either.
http://theaviary.com/s1295-60.shtml http://theaviary.com/s1295-61.shtml
This just seems strange. Comments like never seen before. This article says most common in birds who are immunocompromised. Was there something wrong with these birds to start with? Just seems like a lot of birds and very strange in my estimation.
I myself have picked up 1000′s of ducks and geese in both Calf, and Nevada. At lease in the Western US, wild ducks and geese, generally die of Avian Cholera, Avain Botulism and Duck Plague. I have crossed an 80 acre corn field and collected all of the dead show geese that I found. By the time I got to the other side, there were as many dead geese as I collected. They all died of Avian Cholera. It kills birds very fast.
Old Duck Hunter…How about aspergillosis? Have you familiarity with this disease killing ducks this fast? Also, in your experience, are such diseases like the avian cholera you describe as species specific as this outbreak? some of the first reports remarked how odd it was that other birds seen in the area of the mallard die off were not affected at all.
So, in recapping this thread, is the diagnosis given consistent with the symptoms? Is H5NI ruled out 100% in these Idaho Mallard Ducks?
Thanks,
Argyll.
um, yeah
There is a very good discussion of aspergillosis at this site http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_13.pdf We will not know for sure what the birds died of until the diease lab makes a statement, if I were a betting man I would not bet on BF.
I didn’t know ducks could get aspergillosis. The things you learn on fluwiki.
I predict we get a bunch of white noise about this, don’t ya know Christmas shopping is in full swing?
Can someone tell me how to get to Monotreme’s site? I want to know what Tom DMV thinks about these ducks.
Thanks
Monotreme’s site (or a link to the new PFI forum which will have a link to Monotreme’s blog):
Hope that works.
the blog is here.
http://web.mac.com/monotreme1/iWeb/Pandemic%20Influenza%20Information/PFI_Main.html
Thank you for your help.
You never know where they feed. Last week I saw hundreds of crows feeding in the pumpkin fields, where thousands of pumpking had been plowed under. If those seeds and the pulp were contaminated there would have been a massive crow dieoff. We have had odd weather, lots of rain, very mild and things do rot. Perhaps the weather also has some input into these dieoffs. I have been keeping my eye on the massive amounts of ducks that keep to one side of a river area I bypass. What one duck eats, they all eat.
News now is reporting a lot on states(New Jersey and others) making plans for a pandemic.It seems that movement toward getting ready is going mainstream now.But the general populace is still largely in the dark.Mostly out of a sense of denial.”It can”t happen here”.All this confirms my opinion that one day relatively soon it will be here.The mallard duck die off is not it imho.While a conspiracy believer there are too many people involved in the mallard thing for a conspiracy
I think it’s excellent news that more and more states are starting to prep for pandemic, and that this is starting to edge its way into news reports. Maybe soon my children, students, fellow teachers and neighbors will stop looking at me like I’m a nut case. Up until now I’ve felt like chicken little in a world full of ostriches.
People in the U.S. are getting sick from lettuce, and possably onions. I still wonder about all the necular events in the U.S. Is anybody out there watching this stuff?
MIH,
I can completely identify with how you feel. My family would rather I not discuss bird flu as they call it. As to NewsNow Bird Flu == what a shift in the news. The states’ coverage is pretty surreal. What do you all think of these latest news reports?? The 1918 survivor story was unbelievable …
Argyll
Argyll I believe tptb understand that a pandemic is on the way,but do not want to cause panic,but do want to get as many organizations and units of govt. as possible on the road to being as ready as they can be (on the cheap).Then when it hits the Govt. can relate how they worked and worked to get us all ready.They are counting on a CFR of 2% and so can take refuge in “just under estimating the CFR”.
There is some very interesting data to do with the mallard die off, the South Korean quail infection, and a migratory bird die off in India. It’s on the USGS website page on avian influenza…worth a look. here’s the link: http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/avian_influenza/index.jsp
About halfway down the article it mentions a die off at a migratory lake in India that I hadn’t heard about. Then a little farther down it mentions that thousands of quail eggs from the infected birds in SK were shipped off to market unwashed before the farmers discovered the birds had H5N1, so there could be widespread virus contamination to humans by touching the eggs as they prepare them. And I had never heard a thing about this until now.
I live in a rural area with plenty of woods and fields. A bird dieoff could happen here and noone would notice. I have been watching hundreds of crows feeding in a plowed over pumpkin patch for a week, today there were considerably less. Perhaps a few hundred not close to a thousand as there had been. I’m assuming all those crows are alive and cawing away somewhere in the county. But are they? I didn’t even know there where so many crows in this area. They are doing a bird count in Central Park in NYC. Someone is keeping watch. But here in the states with wide open spaces a lot can go on that noone notices. We have one heck of a lot of carrion birds here in our area. I always assumed the turkey vultures were feeding on dead deer and grey squirrels. I’m going to talk to the people at the farm and envioremental center about the masses of crows. I think they call it a murder of crows when they are all together like that.
a murder of crows…I love that.
A friend pointed out that I shouldn’t be overly concerned about duck or other bird die offs…we won’t be catching H5N1 from birds to any significant degree, especially those of us living in areas where we don’t keep large numbers of poultry. It’s the kid next to yours in the classroom you need to worry about, or the guy on the bus or in the mall, coughing out invisible viral particles just as you inhale….keep an eye on the flu records for your area, not the birds.
Mary - You are right that H5N1 in birds is not at all the same as a human spreading pandemic, but I think pet owners DO have to be very concerned about infected wild birds in their area. Imagine your cat or dog finding and eating a dead or sick (with H5N1) bird and then coming inside and curling up on your kid’s pillow. And then beginning to cough or sneeze. Once we know the virus is here, pet owners will need to keep their pets inside or provide covered, bird-poop proof, runs for their pets now that we know birds can spread the disease to mammals.
Discussion on the new forum regarding bird die-offs. The assumption is that there has not been significant die-offs in the U.S. But there has been…
“…Based on monthly surveys, researchers estimated the dead birds numbered in the tens of thousands. Dominating the toll were the Brandt’s cormorant and the common murre.
Published: September 1, 2006 “More than 1,600 sea bird carcasses have washed onto Unalaska shores over the last two days in a mysterious die-off that scientists are scrambling to understand.”
Comment - there was no followup to this; no conclusion or news items determining a cause. It just went away…
30 SEPTEMBER. ALASKA: SEABIRDS “A large and extensive seabird die-off occurred in Alaska in summer 1997. Short-tailed Shearwaters died from the western Gulf of Alaska to the Chukchi Sea. Other species also died in parts of this area: Black-legged Kittiwakes on the Alaska Peninsula, and murres and some other species in small parts of the west and north. Mortality lasted from mid-May to early September and spanned about a week in each area. This die-off was very widely reported, considering that the entire area has no roads and few human residents. Calls came from villagers, fishermen, and diverse biologists. Ground surveys were conducted on 21 beaches and aerial surveys on four. (Numbers of birds on beaches suggest relative mortality but are not precise indices.) Cooperators sent specimens from 20 locations. The first phase of the die-off involved Common Murres in western Alaska in the last week of May. Dead birds were reported in waters between Nunivak Island and the mainland, and 1–2/km were counted on beaches.
The next reported mortality was in waters of northern St. Lawrence Island at the end of July. Several hundred carcasses included murres, Horned Puffins, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Short-tailed Shearwaters, and small numbers of other species.
During the first week of August, Short-tailed Shearwaters and Black-legged Kittiwakes died on both sides of the Alaska Peninsula (the “tail” of Alaska that extends southwest towards the Aleutians). “Thousands” of dead birds were reported in tide rips near shore. The die-off covered the entire lower half of the peninsula, as confirmed by a 2-day aerial survey. Beaches surveyed by foot had 5–50 dead Short-tailed Shearwaters and 1–20 Black-legged Kittiwakes/km. Dead storm-petrels also were reported on one beach.
Short-tailed Shearwaters began dying over a huge area of the Bering Sea at about the same time. Freshly dead birds (as well as flocks of live ones) were seen on both sides of the Aleutian Islands as far west as Adak in the first week of August, on the Pribilofs and near Anadyr (Russia) a week later, and on the north shore of Bristol bay in the third week of August. Densities on beaches ranged from 50/km on Adak to 350/km on Nunivak Island.
Mortality of Thick-billed and Common Murres, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Short-tailed Shearwaters was reported in the Chukchi Sea between Kotzebue and Point Hope in the last week of August. A few shearwaters were found at Cape Lisburne, on Alaska’s northwest corner. Numerous reports were received of birds behaving unusually. Flocks of shearwaters were seen feeding within 100m of shore. Shearwaters and kittiwakes in the Gulf of Alaska were attempting to grab food out of fishing gear and sometimes perching on vessels. Flocks of shearwaters commonly included moribund birds that did not fly at the approach of a vessel. Several shearwaters were seen up to 30 km inland on rivers and freshwater lakes.
Murres had lower than normal breeding success in the Pribilofs (G.V. Byrd and A.L. Sowls, unpubl. data). Dead birds were thin and light in weight. Most Alaskan seabirds appear not to have been affected. There was no mortality in the northern and eastern Gulf of Alaska. No species died off other than those listed above, although 38 species breed in Alaska and 2 shearwaters visit during the summer.
Vivian M. Mendenhall, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service <vivian_mendenhall@mail.fws.gov>
LEMMING FREE ZONE…Thank you for bringing up this very important point. I remember now such concerns being mentioned awhile back but I’d missed their importance. Sometimes I get so focussed on the larger aspects of a potential pandemic that I forget where it ultimately matters most, which is in each individual home! (Sort of the antithesis of ‘can’t see the forest for the trees.’)
Ideally, the public should be being educated about making those new pet habits now
FAO March 2006 …”Areas where H5N1 HPAI has been diagnosed or is suspected in poultry or wild birds:
Report to the local veterinary authority any evidence of significant bird mortality both wild and domestic
Be especially vigilant for any dead or sick cats and report such findings to the local vet
Make sure contact between cats and wild birds or poultry (or their faeces) is avoided and/or keep cats inside
If cats bring a sick or dead bird inside the house, put on plastic gloves and dispense of the bird in plastic bags for collection by local veterinary animal handlers
Keep stray cats outside the house and avoid contact with them
If cats show breathing problems or nasal discharge, a veterinarian should be consulted
Do not touch or handle any sick-looking or dead cat (or other animal) and report to the authorities
Wash hands with water and soap regularly and especially after handling animals and cleaning their litter boxes or coming in contact with faeces or saliva
Dogs can only be taken outside the premises if kept on restraint
Do not feed any water birds
Disinfect (e.g. with bleach 2–3 %) cages or other hardware with which sick animals have been transported or been in contact with.
Wash animal blankets with soap or any other commercial detergent”…
Today there were only a few dozen crows. What suprised me about the gatherings last week was the fact of a large dieoff of crows from West Nile virus, and this represented to me a very vibrant resurgence. They can produce 4 offspring a year and they are fine parents, just as the Canadian Geese. Today there were at least a thousand of the Canadian Geese in one open field.(I make a grid and count ten and then figure out the mass count. Not exact but pretty quick.)One field has cattle and the other is for horses. I think its time to visit the library at the Envioremental center and check out current natural history data. I would suggest taking off outdoor shoes when entering the house to Crfullmoon excellent recommendations.
Woman at the center thought it must be grackles that I have been watching. Looked like crows to me. Much larger than grackles or starlings, but she thinks crows don’t go beyond groupings of about 20. Will have to check with the people at the farm. I get interested in all these little byways that mean little, but have aroused my curiosity as something peculiar. I have seen masses of red winged black birds, and the birds I watched are a deal larger. Very few people seem concerned in the Idaho mallard duck dieoff, but are intersted in food related problems. They don’t seem to realize that we are all part of the larger picture in nature..
Just sent a report to Crows.net. I’m not the only one who watches nature in the raw.
?? Oh dear…
Going to switch from watching the evolution of H5N1 , to just old fashioned naturalist observations. Nice change. Have a good holiday everyone, and a healthy and happy New Year.
I just had a chat with the farmer, and it is crows and some magpies. So people who you think might know something can be wrong. As far as dead crows they are having a contest out midwest and they are giving a prize to whoever kills the most. Seems stupid and barbaric. So poisoning them would be someones idea of population control. My farmer shoots off a cannon when they are being destructive.
Yup…crows and crops. They go together about as well as Electricity and Water.
Idahos warm wet fall weather made for perfect fungal breeding ground in the killoff of the mallards. http://www.katu.com/news/outdoors/4957416.html. they mention that a couple of million mallards come through Idaho in the fall. This is pretty much what I thought. We have moss and algea on the north side of my garage and trees where I never had moss before. Lots of rain and you’d think it was the Olympia penisula in Washington State.
I thought that official testing of the mallards was due out yesterday. Did I miss it?