Hi Tweets!

Thought you might be interested in this posting from the Wildlife Health list.

Peggi
>
>
> Nestling mortality in a double-crested cormorant and Caspian tern
> colony on Mullet Island in the southeastern end of the Salton Sea in
> southern California, was reported to the National Wildlife Health
> Center (NWHC) by Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge personnel the
> week of May 12, 1997. It was estimated that approximately 1600
> nestlings and young of the year birds, primarily double-crested
> cormorants, were dead on the island and no active nests remained.
> There was evidence of a wide range of nesting activity on the island
> from the presence of unhatched eggs to young of the year that were
> fledging age. Field personnel from NWHC visited the area and
> reported that approximately 200 birds remained alive in the waters
> around the island with some immature, young of the year, birds
> showing a range of neurological signs from paresis to unilateral wing
> or leg paralysis to inability to move or respond to stimuli. The
> mortality event in the nestlings was over at the time it was detected
> and because all of the nestlings on the island had been dead for a
> period of time in the Salton Sea climate, the carcasses were
> unsuitable for diagnostic examination. Sick immature birds showing
> neurological signs and freshly dead birds found in the area of the
> island were collected for diagnostic evaluation.
>
> Preliminary findings to date include histopathologic lesions of
> moderate to severe nonsuppurative viral encephalitis in 6 of 7 birds
> examined. The lesions are the same as those observed in double
> crested cormorants in the 1992 Newcastle Disease outbreak in the Great
> Lakes, Midwest, and Canada. To date, no virus has been isolated in
> the Salton Sea event. Virus isolation attempts and other diagnostic
> tests are continuing and other cormorant nesting colonies at the
> Salton Sea are being monitored closely for mortality.
>
> In addition to the cormorant mortality ongoing mortality events in
> other avian species continue at the Salton Sea. Low level mortality
> attributed to botulism Type C in several fish eating species including
> brown and white pelicans has been occurring for the last 7-8 weeks as
> well as an undiagnosed mortality event in eared grebes. The
> mortality in the eared grebes appears to be similar to previous
> outbreaks in this species that have occurred in the last 5 years on
> the Salton Sea.
>
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"