Here are Fish & Wildlife findings, FYI.

Peggi


>Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 10:21:32 -0500
>Errors-To: owners-wildlifehealth at relay.doit.wisc.edu
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>Sender: wildlifehealth at relay.doit.wisc.edu
>From: WHadmin at nbs.gov (WHadmin)
>To: Multiple recipients of list <wildlifehealth at relay.doit.wisc.edu>
>Subject: NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN SALTON SEA CORMORANTS
>X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0b -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
>
> U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Region 1 911 N.E. 11th Avenue
> Portland, Oregon 97232-4181
>
> Refer: David Klinger/Portland, Oregon - 503/231-6121 (o.)
> 503/246-8346 (h.)
>
> June 6, 1997
>
> U.S. FEDERAL LAB CONFIRMS NEWCASTLE DISEASE IN SALTON SEA CORMORANTS;
> ADDITIONAL TESTS UNDER WAY TO DETERMINE STRAIN
>
> A U.S. Federal laboratory has isolated Newcastle disease virus as the
> cause of recent deaths in a nesting colony of double-crested
> cormorants in southern California's Salton Sea, but there are no
> indications yet what type of Newcastle disease, or how severe it may
> be, agencies of the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today.
>
> The USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin,
> today reported that it had detected the virus in cormorant samples
> taken from the inland sea during a recent die-off that has killed
> about1,600 of the black waterbirds to date. The laboratory cautioned
> that the particular strain of Newcastle virus in this outbreak has yet
> to be identified, so it is unknown at this time what risk its
> appearance in the Salton Sea poses to other birds or to domestic
> poultry.
>
> Samples have been sent to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
> National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, and analysis is
> already under way to characterize which of several strains of
> Newcastle disease caused the cormorant deaths. Certain varieties of
> Newcastle disease pose threats to domestic poultry, while other
> varieties pose only a minimal threat. Similar analysis of tissue
> samples is being performed by the State of California's Veterinary
> Diagnostic Laboratory in San Bernardino.
>
> Newcastle disease was first identified in the United States in 1944
> and is now found virtually worldwide. Human health implications from
> Newscastle disease virus are considered to be minimal.
>
> As a part of today's announcement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
> Service and the USGS laboratory have recommended that wild birds not
> be transported beyond the Salton Sea area until such time as the viral
> strain has been identified. No sick or diseased birds will be taken
> outside the immediate area for rehabilitation; if birds require
> additional care and treatment, that will be performed locally at a
> site to be established by Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. The
> refuge advises private citizens to notify Fish and Wildlife Service
> staff in the area of any sick birds, but not to attempt to recover or
> move birds themselves. Also, the California Department of Fish and
> Game has declared the appearance of this virus in birds at the Salton
> Sea as an "incident" under its "incident command system," and will
> undertake efforts with its Federal counterpart agency to limit the
> spread of the disease.
>
> Identification of the virus in cormorants occurs as wildlife
> biologists contend with other maladies affecting two other species of
> birds in sections of the remote 380-square-mile sea, which is the
> last stop in the United States for many species of birds migrating
> along the Pacific Flyway. Small numbers of deaths in brown and white
> pelicans, attributed to avian botulism, have been reported over the
> past 2 months, as well as undiagnosed deaths in eared grebes, another
> species of waterbird. Last year, the Salton Sea was the site of the
> largest recorded die-off of pelicans, diagnosed as avian botulism, a
> recurrent disease of birds in the wild.
>
> In the current situation, deaths of nestlings in a cormorant and
> Caspian tern colony on Mullet Island in the Salton Sea were first
> reported in early May 1997. At that time, about 1,600 nestlings and
> young birds were found dead and no active nests remained on the
> island, though about 200 cormorants remained active in the waters
> surrounding the site, some of them showing signs of illness.
>
> Review of clinical signs in ill cormorants and microscopic analyses
> performed by the USGS facility determined that the Salton Sea die-off
> was similar to that seen in die-offs of cormorants from Newcastle
> disease in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region in1990 and
> 1992 and in Saskatchewan in1995. The USGS laboratory and the Fish and
> Wildlife Service recently have urged wildlife biologists and natural
> resource managers in the United States and Canada to report instances
> of unusual neurological behavior in cormorants -- wing or leg
> paralysis or the inability to maintain balance -- to the Interior
> Department agencies or state fish and wildlife agencies for further
> investigation.
>
> The doubled-crested cormorant is a common species of bird found
> throughout the United States, always associated with water and
> increasing in population in many places. The bird stands up to 30
> inches tall and can frequently be seen on rocks and coastal
> outcroppings.
>.-
>
>
Ben & Peggi Rodgers
Aptos, CA (near Santa Cruz 122 W, 37 N)
USA
woodduck at cruzio.com


"A bird does not sing because it has an answer,
It sings because it has a song"