Mass bird death mirrors US

[Guest guest]

Mass bird death mirrors US

By staff writers and wires

January 10, 2007 04:28pm

The unexplained near-extinction of birds around the town of Esperance

mirrors a similarly mysterious sudden mass aviary death in the US.

Reports of birds dropping dead in people's yards around Esperance, on the

southern coast of Western Australia, began to come in three weeks ago, well

before last week's freak storm that caused devastating floods in the region.

The reports stopped this week as the skies became clear of birdlife.

The main casualties are wattle birds, yellow-throated miners, new holland

honeyeaters and singing honeyeaters, although some dead crows, hawks and

pigeons

have also been found.

The WA Department of Food and Agriculture has conducted autopsies on five

birds and believes ingested toxin is the most likely cause of the deaths,

but

has not pinpointed a culprit among hundreds of possible poisons.

Authorities are asking people to bring more birds in the hope one may have

enough food in its stomach to identify a common deadly toxin.

" It doesn't appear to be an infectious cause. Certainly, one thing that is

being considered is a toxin, " acting chief veterinary officer Fiona

Sunderman

said.

Dr Sunderman said the investigation had been hampered because the dead birds

had very little in their stomachs, suggesting the food had been regurgitated

or the birds were so unwell they could not eat.

Any one of hundreds of toxins could be causing the deaths but so far all

leads had been dead ends, Mr Fitzgerald said.

" We're dealing with birds that eat insects and nectar, so we're at a loss to

understand how the toxins have actually entered their food web, " he said.

" Lead and arsenic and several other heavy metal materials are sometimes

shipped through Esperance, but that doesn't seem likely. "

Tests have also ruled out the toxin being introduced through insects.

" The birds are dying around sprinklers, water tanks, bird baths ... it seems

as a result of them being ill. They're seeking water and they're dying

around

those water points, " Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC)

district nature conservation co-ordinator Mike Fitzgerald said.

" We need to identify what toxin it is or we need to find the toxin in the

water ... something to point where to take this, " Mr Fitzgerald said.

Esperance bird watcher Alan Rose said he had never seen anything like it and

was concerned it could spread to the local population of Cape Baron geese

and

push it to the brink of extinction.

" Numbers are not large, so they are vulnerable, " Mr Rose, a member of bird

watching group Birds Australia WA, said.

On Sunday the central business district of Austin, Texas in the US was

partly shut down on after dozens of birds were found dead in the streets,

wire

service AP reported.

As many as 60 dead pigeons, sparrows and grackles were found with

authorities

unable to determine what caused the deaths after tests determined their was

no poison in the air.

Experts said the most likely cause was a deliberate poisoning of the

grackles, widley regarded as pests.

Officials however were continuing investigations because as one said, the

birds' " requirements for life are pretty similar to our requirements for

life "

so they can serve as an early warning for risks to human health. "

With AAP

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