Thought some of you might be interested in these reports:

Peggi

>
>Two wildlife dieoffs have been reported to the National Wildlife Health Center
>(NWHC) recently that may be of interest to others.
>
>At the end of February, an oil spill occurred in the Pribilof Islands of
Alaska.
>The cause of the spill is unknown but may have occurred when ballast water was
>dumped by a boat passing through the area. Approximately 700 to 800 birds
>(primarily king eiders) were oiled. A few days later, dead common murres began
>washing ashore that were not oiled. Over a 5 day period, approximately 300 to
>400 common murres were found sick and dead (but not oiled). It is not known at
>this time if the mortality is linked to the spill. Several carcasses will be
>submitted to NWHC for diagnostic evaluation. NWHC is aware of a couple other
>large scale murre mortality events that have occurred in recent years. During
>a 3 month period in the spring of 1993, over 50,000 common murres died at
>multiple sites along the Gulf of Alaska. The primary diagnosis was
starvation.
>NWHC took part in a field investigation. The precipitating cause of the
>starvation event was not determined. Last summer, along the California coast,
>approximately 1,000 murres were again thought to have died from starvation. Of
>interest, no mortality was noted in other species which consume the same food
>items.
>
>Avian cholera mortality is occurring throughout the eastern portion of the
>Rainwater basin of Nebraska. There are approximately 3/4 to 1 million snow
>geese, 1/2 million Canada geese and a variety of duck species in the area.
>Approximately 5,000 carcasses (primarily snow geese) have been picked up.
Drier
>than normal conditions have resulted in lower water levels and fewer wetlands
>therefore birds are concentrated in some areas, possibly contributing to the
>number of birds affected.
>
>When additional information is available on these events I'll post an update on
>the list.
>
>K. Miller
>Wildlife Disease Specialist
>National Wildlife Health Center
>kim_miller at nbs.gov
>
>



Peggi Rodgers
Oregon Research Institute
Eugene, OR
peggir at ori.org
"A bird does not sing because it has an
answer, It sings because it has a song"