Hi Bruce,

Here are a couple of articles to get you started, and there are plenty more
where these came from. Just go to Google and start plugging in key words.

Dhondt, AA. (1998). House Finch eye disease heads steadily west. Birdscope
12(1):11-12.

Fischer, JR, DE Stallknecht, MP Luttrell, AA Dhondt & KA Converse. (1997).
Mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in wild songbirds: The spread of a new contagious
disease in a mobile host population. Emerging Infectious Diseases
3(1):69-72.

You can also try this web page:
http://members.aol.com/FinchMG/MGspread.htm#What%20Role

I outline how birdfeeding would have played a role in the emergence of the
MG form affecting wild passerines in a letter that was published in The Wall
Street Journal back in early 2003.

Through its Project FeederWatch and House Finch Disease surveys, Cornell
seeks to document the repsonse of our wild birds to conditions that the
institution, itself, has helped to orchestrate. These activities constitute
experimentation with our natural heritage on a grand scale and thus--I
maintain--an unconscionable act.

To Guy's statement on how avian pox is spread, I would like to add that the
virus is transmitted, perhaps just as frequently, through direct contact
with infected birds or contaminated surfaces at feeders or through the
ingestion of contaminated food or water.

Regards,
Jason Rogers
Banff, AB
hawkowl at hotmail.com