BOTULISM, AVIAN - USA (05): (FLORIDA) SUSPECTED
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Date: Thu 12 Aug 2010
Source: News-Press [edited]
<http://www.news-press.com/article/20100812/CRIME/100812034/1075/Disease--not-poisoning--blamed-for-duck-deaths-in-Cape-Coral-park?>
State wildlife officials now suspect that avian botulism or other natural causes may be responsible for the demise of 4 Muscovy ducks at a Cape Coral park.
However, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission won't know for a couple of months whether botulism or some other deadly pathogen is responsible for the mallards' deaths, said agency spokesman Gary Morse. "We're leaning toward a natural pathogen, possibly botulism, as being the cause," Morse said.
It was suspected that the domestic ducks were poisoned -- either accidentally by eating bugs on lawns treated with pesticides and other chemicals, or deliberately, Morse said.
However, veterinarians confirmed that birds infected with botulism or other deadly germs show the same signs as poisoned fowl, Morse said.
A total of 7 sick Muscovy ducks were found at Four Freedoms Park in the past 2 weeks and taken to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel, said Steve Pohlman, city parks and recreation director. He said 3 of the ducks survived.
Police were notified of the possible poisoning of the ducks, which is a crime under state law. However, police who talked to state wildlife officials were told that because of hot water temperatures in the Bimini Basin near the park, and dead fish found there, a natural cause such as avian botulism is suspected, Pohlman said.
The bodies of some dead ducks and other dead wading birds gathered from the area will be sent to a lab for testing, Morse said.
The good news is that avian botulism is not a threat to humans, Morse said. Still, it is prudent to handle any sick bird with gloves or plastic bags on the hands, he said. Any sightings of dead ducks or other fowl in the area should be entered into the wildlife agency's Bird Mortality database by going to myfwc.com, Morse said.
[Byline: Denes Husty III]
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[The sporulating anaerobic gram-positive bacillus _Clostridium botulinum_ elaborates 7 types of antigenically distinct neurotoxins,
4 of which affect humans: type A, B, E, or rarely type F toxin. Types A and B toxins are highly poisonous proteins resistant to digestion by GI (gastrointestinal) enzymes. About half of the foodborne outbreaks in the United States are caused by type A toxin, followed by types B and E.
Type C botulism occurs principally in waterfowl and other birds living in an aquatic environment and causes tremendous losses, most notably in waterfowl in the western US. In addition to North America, it has been reported in birds in Europe, South Africa, Uruguay, and Australia. In the Great Lakes region, it was first identified in 1936 in ducks on Green Bay of Lake Michigan and in 1941 in Monroe County marshes along Lake Erie. Type C is most often associated with limberneck paralysis in birds.
Type E botulism is connected with consumption of fish and occurs mainly in gulls and loons, and to a lesser extent in mergansers, mute swans, grebes, and shorebirds. It now appears any birds or mammals susceptible to botulinum toxin run a risk of becoming poisoned if they scavenge dead fish. Evidence for this includes the identification of type E toxin in a bald eagle, wood ducks, and muskrats with fish remaining in their digestive tracts.
Typically a bird dies of some cause, and the carcass is an incubator for the anaerobes. The maggots move into the decomposing carcass, accumulating the toxin. Other birds come to eat the maggots on the carcass and infect themselves, dying from the very disease they consumed, and so the circle gets larger and requires that carcasses to be picked up, or the cycle continues. - Mod.TG]
[Cape Coral in Southwest Florida can be located on the HealthMap/ProMED-mail interactive map of the US at <http://healthmap.org/r/02SS>. - Sr.Tech.Ed.MJ]
[see also:
Botulism, avian - USA (04): (OH) 20100718.2407 Botulism, avian - USA (03): (CA) 20100709.2294 Botulism, avian - USA (02): (CO) 20100627.2145 Botulism, avian - USA: (MI) susp 20100618.2047
2009
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Botulism, avian - USA: (NV) 20090808.2814
2008
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Botulism, avian - USA (02): Great Lakes 20080817.2556 Botulism, avian - USA: Great Lakes 20080116.0210
2007
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Botulism, avian - USA (02): (MI), susp. 20071111.3665 Botulism, avian - USA: (MI), susp 20071103.3572 Botulism, avian - USA (NY): susp 20070812.2624 Botulism, avian - USA (NY) 20070714.2259] ...................................sb/tg/mj/dk
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