Subject: Pine Siskin Virus?
Date: Feb 3 08:42:44 2004
From: David Parent DVM - dpdvm at whidbey.com
Tweeters,
People bring a variety of dead birds into my vet clinic, often wondering why
it died. As time permits, I?ll do postmortems on these birds, sometimes with
the local 4-H kids. Sometimes the folks who bring these birds in are highly
motivated and we?ll send cultures and tissue samples to our lab.
Siskin and other finchlike bird winter mortality is always high. Most of
these little guys are, for whatever reason, starving to death. (It?s a cruel
world out there) Many, however, are in good flesh. Some of these birds in
seemingly good condition have actually hit a window and, before death, move
quite a way from the site of impact. For others, there is no obvious
explanation. To my knowledge, there is no siskin virus and mortality this
year seems to be about the same as in past years.
We have cultured salmonella from the non-gastrointestinal tract tissues of
many of these birds. I emphasize non-GI because salmonella is considered a
normal inhabitant of many bird, reptile and amphibian GI tracts. In some of
these cases, the infection is so quick and overwhelming that the birds die
suddenly without any outwardly visible or microscopic lesions.
I think siskin feeding methods at feeders may have something to do with
salmonella transmission. You know
they camp out in one place on the feeder,
pig out and poop on anything (and anyone) beneath them. If an already
winter-stressed bird ingests the wrong amount of salmonella bacteria,
illness and death may follow.
The bottom line is ? keep your feeders and feeding areas clean, move feeders
frequently ? but even this may not be enough to prevent siskin and finch
mortality.
Dave Parent, Freeland, WA send to dpdvm at whidbey.com
-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Carmel
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2004 4:45 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Pine Siskin Virus?
Tweeters,
? I heard, from a friend who volunteers at PAWS,??that there is a contagious
illness affecting Pine Siskin . Apparently they are suggesting that people
either clean their birdfeeders daily, or just?take them down to?help prevent
this illness from spreading further.?Maybe I wasn't paying attention, but
I?haven't?found this news on Tweeters (though?I remember someone
recently?reporting?dead Pine Siskin at a feeder site).?Can anyone confirm
this info????
Susan Carmel
Seattle