aflatoxin duck deaths probed

November 11, 2005

Duck deaths probed

By BRIAN FUNK Staff Reporter

Dead ducks found in Chestnut Creek in Galax last week probably were not the

victims of foul play or anything as insidious as avian flu or a chemical spill.

It's more likely they ate some bad corn, according to Lt. Rex Hill of the state

Department of Game & Inland Fisheries.

Animal Control Officer found the ducks last Wednesday near the

creek, off Meadow Street near the Consolidated Glass plant.

Two ducks were dead. Three others were sick and had to be euthanized.

With all the news reports of avian flu outbreaks throughout Asia and cases as

close as Canada, people worried about what killed the birds.

“They weren't migratory, so there's no danger of that,” Hill said.

The ducks had been a fixture in Galax since the spring, when they drew

motorists' attention by waddling into streets near the creek. They roosted near

the creek, where employees at furniture factories fed them corn.

Hill said he examined a feeder near Vaughan-Bassett Furniture and found that the

corn looked clean and safe.

But corn found at a roosting spot in the creek where ducks congregate appeared

to be moldy, he said.

“There's a possibility that they were killed by aflatoxin, which is always

present in corn but gets worse when it gets moldy.”

Eating moldy corn can be harmful or fatal to ducks.

The roost was near a trailer park and the Galax water treatment plant

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