Mysterious Duck Dieoff in Idaho

[Freebird]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenew...=rss&rpc=22

[Darlene]

I just saw that in the news...it's scary.

[Cat]

Thousands of ducks mysteriously dying in Idaho

Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:48pm ET

 

By Laura Zuckerman

 

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Officials scrambled on Wednesday to determine what has caused the deaths of thousands of mallard ducks in south-central Idaho near the Utah border.

 

Although wildlife experts are downplaying any links to bird flu, they have sent samples to government labs to test for the deadly H5N1 flu strain, among other pathogens.

 

Officials with the federal Bureau of Homeland Security have been also called in to help with the probe.

 

"We think the possibility of avian flu is very remote but we're not ruling anything out at this point in time," said Dave Parish, regional supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. "We want to make sure all the bases are covered."

 

Wildlife officials are calling the massive die-off alarming, with the number of dead mallards rising from 1,000 on Tuesday to more than 2,000 by Wednesday afternoon. "We've never seen anything like this - ever," Parrish said.

 

A hunter alerted state conservation officials after finding a handful of dead ducks along a creek near Burley, about 150 miles southeast of Boise, on Friday.

 

By Wednesday, dead and dying birds clogged sections of the stream and littered its banks. Officials have posted signs warning hunters and others not to touch or eat the birds until a cause of death has been identified.

 

Preliminary findings by state veterinarians suggest the mallards succumbed to a bacterial infection, officials said. They said it was unclear why a similar outbreak had never before occurred in Idaho.

 

SIMILAR EVENT IN IOWA LAST YEAR

 

On Wednesday, officials outfitted with protective gear were gathering hundreds of mallard carcasses. Wildlife managers said the birds will be incinerated.

 

The only mallard die-off roughly equivalent in recent years happened in Waterloo, Iowa in 2005, when 500 ducks died from a fungus they contracted by eating moldy grain, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center.

 

The center'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.

 

Mallards are the most common duck species in the United States, with populations nationwide. Most mallards that winter in Idaho originate from Alberta, Canada, with a smaller percentage from the Northwest Territories, said Tom Keegan, regional wildlife manager with Idaho Fish and Game.

 

Although the magnitude and the pace of the die-off is unusual, officials said, migratory birds and other wild animals are more likely to get sick when large numbers congregate in small areas.

 

That can happen to mallards in the winter, when many of the waterways they depend upon are frozen.

 

Compounding the seasonal phenomenon is the ever-shrinking habitat available to wildlife because of sprawling development and expanding farm operations.

 

(link above)

[Granny]

Cold chills down back reading this one. Test results to be reviewed today? Hoping it's (DVE)Duck virus enteritis (link below) or anything besides HN51.

 

http://tinyurl.com/ym8hua

 

[dogmom4]

Anyone heard anything new on this? It's interesting...6 months ago I would have been in a major panic over this...I'm not right now(maybe I should be), but I can't quite figure out why I'm not.

Stacy

[Cat]

Quote:

6 months ago I would have been in a major panic over this... I'm not right now (maybe I should be), but I can't quite figure out why I'm not.

Christmas is coming... flu season is here without a major Bird Flu outbreak reported... we're too busy to be constantly on high alert... and it's not good for our health to BE "constantly on high alert".

At least that's how I see it...

[Vic303]

Die off is reportedly linked to ducks eating moldy grain. An Aspergillum (?) infection I believe.

[Jewlzm]

Just posted that in Are you really ready. Imagine how Im feeling right now.

 

Its fungus or bacterial from what the stations of news are saying here. But again no one is really sure. I really wish they would make up my mind on these kinds of things.

[tsiemens]

More weird stuff is happening, look at the pictures on the main page of this site and tell me you havent seen it in the sky before.... then research what is actually IN the stuff..... its my personal opinion (not proven fact) that the powers that be are trying to decrease population in this method through weather control, poisoning the populous and making it difficult to grow anything outside of heavily sprayed GM foods (genetically modified).

[tsiemens]

Uh sorry, here's the site.

www.carnicom.com

[GoatLady]

You should use my old siggy, "You're friendly neighbourhood conspiricy theorist"

[Pixie]

Quote:

More weird stuff is happening, look at the pictures on the main page of this site and tell me you havent seen it in the sky before.... then research what is actually IN the stuff..... its my personal opinion (not proven fact) that the powers that be are trying to decrease population in this method through weather control, poisoning the populous and making it difficult to grow anything outside of heavily sprayed GM foods (genetically modified).

call me an idiot if you must, but i dont get what is wrong with those pictures. i must be missing something because all i see in those pictures is sky and clouds. nothing off about that.