Re: Bird Botulism?

["Richard L Whitman" <richard_whitman@usgs.gov>]

Would you have suspected West Nile during the summer of 2000?  Further, it
was less than a dozen birds at a single beach so it could have been
anything I guess.






                                                                                                           
                      "Rob Sulski"                                                                         
                      <Rob.Sulski@epa.s        To:       <beachnet@great-lakes.net>,                       
                      tate.il.us>               <richard_whitman@usgs.gov>                                 
                                               cc:                                                         
                      01/23/2003 09:27         Subject:  Re: Bird Botulism?                                
                      AM                                                                                   
                                                                                                           
                                                                                                           




Without clinical evidence, it's very difficult to determine what killed
or caused the behavior in the gulls.

Over the last few years in the Midwest we have seen thousands of wild
and captive birds, including a few of my own, suffering and dying from
West Nile Virus.  Half grown feathers get pinched off at the blood mark
during molting, many birds stumbel around on the ground like drunken
sailors before they die, and some birds recover, but with partial or
full blindness in one or both eyes.

Rob Sulski

>>> "Richard L Whitman" <richard_whitman@usgs.gov> 01/22/03 12:42PM
>>>
I have a question?

A few summers ago we started noticing gulls dying in particularlly
high
number in August at a beach we were studying.  These birds at first
seemed
'drunk' at first, then began losing coordination and equilibrium.
They
would then lose the ability to walk and would soon died thereafter.
That
was the same time old masses of anaerobic Cladophora was accumulating
on
the beach.  Lately, I've been wondering if these bird might have picked
up
some botulism from the algal mats.  As anybody else noticed this
phenomenon? Can you remember if it was coincidental with these
anaerobic
mats or during this season?   Would you be on the look out this summer
for
it, especially if you have big mats of Cladophora?  Let me know what
you
think.


Richard Whitman



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