Just passing this along as the full article from the New York Times.

Roger Craik
Maple Ridge BC

November 19, 2002

Birds Feeding at Lake Erie Die in Botulism Outbreak

By JIM ROBBINS

This fall is turning out to be the deadliest yet for loons, ducks and
other birds that encounter a natural outbreak of a rare form of the
nerve toxin botulism in Lake Erie.

Dr. Ward Stone, director of the New York Department of Environmental
Conservation Pathology Laboratory in Delmar, N.Y., which studies the
dead birds, said that over the last two weeks his staff had picked up
more than 5,500 birds along the shores of Lake Erie in western New
York, between Buffalo and Dunkirk, including 126 loons, 4,500
long-tailed ducks, geese, grebes, mergansers, scaups and many types
of gulls. He said the birds found were only a small part of the
total number killed. "We're very concerned," he said. "This is the
tip of the iceberg."

Canadian wildlife officials have also found large numbers of birds on
Lake Erie. They have counted more than 1,000 dead loons, including
700 on an 18-mile stretch of beach at Long Point, Ontario. Loons are
of special concern because their numbers in the region are low.

The birds died after eating fish infected with type E botulism,
officials said.

The botulism outbreak killed thousands of resident birds in the same
area this summer. Those that have died in recent weeks are migratory
waterfowl moving south. It is the fourth year the bacteria have
appeared to kill birds, and no one knows how many years it might
last.

This year, New York wildlife officials, who are gathering as many
carcasses as they can find, are trying a new approach, hoping to head
off the poisoning of eagles, hawks and other scavengers. The toxin
does not pose a threat to humans, officials say, as long as they do
not eat fish or ducks that appear to be healthy.

This is believed to be the largest outbreak of type E botulism in the
United States, and it is believed to be caused by an invasion of
exotic species. A proliferation of quagga and zebra mussels, brought
from Europe in ocean-going freighters, has greatly cleaned the water
in Lake Erie, allowing sunlight to penetrate to much greater depths
and increasing the production of weeds. Botulism thrives in decaying
weeds and is apparently ingested by the mussels, and another exotic
species, a fish called the round goby. Birds die when they eat the
gobies or mussels.

The outbreak is expected to end when the lake cools sometime in the
next couple of weeks.


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