Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 22:30:29 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Re: Fwd: Mold & West Nile Virus kill feeder birds in Baltimore MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 09/29/03 20:58:28 Eastern Daylight Time, pwebb@BCPL.NET writes: > 1) In my small pond, starting in the spring, I will put a biological > larvicide to kill mosquito larvae.... Or place mosquito-eating fish > in the pond to control the growth of mosquito larvae. Great ideas, these ponds are ideal breeding grounds for skeeters, some species are not bothered by the turbulence created by fountains and waterfalls > > 2) When I find a dead song bird, I will place its carcass in the > trash. West Nile can spread to hawks and other predators who eat > smaller birds that have West Nile virus. > Some species of raptors are known to be very susceptible to WNV and corvids will also eat carrion. > 3) I'll stop feeding birds until after the first frost. Research shows > that West Nile virus can travel from bird to bird in a laboratory > setting. Thus, it can spread at feeders. Perhaps birds eating in the > wild are less concentrated. > I'm not certain, but I believe that the experiment in question may have been faulty (anyone know for sure?) The virus can be shed in feces and I believe this same experiment indicate possible aerosol transmission. Birds eating in the wild are less concentrated so shutting down now may be OK. But falconers and rehabilitators are finding that many birds suffering from WNV can survive this disease. Supportive care is about all that can be done for them, administration of fluids and easy to digest food. While we cannot do that for the wild birds still on the wing, your feeder may be saving more than are being killed by providing an easy source of food while they recover. Keeping your feeder clean as you probably do for conjunctivitis is good enough. > 4) This unusually wet season may cause birdseed to grow moldy. Mold is > poisonous to birds. So I'll be careful not to let wet seed pile up > under a feeder, at any season. I'll dispose of old seed by putting it > in the trash, not the woods. > 5) Question: Might this usually wet season also increase the amount of > airborne fungus (aspergilis) that causes fungal pneumonia -- which > weakened and then killed the House Finch at my feeder, in combination > with West Nile virus? > Asper occurs naturally everywhere. You are breathing it right now. So are all those roosting birds as they snore through the night. The fungal pneumonia comes when the immune system is compromised. I believe it is somewhat common in WNV positive birds. This fungus is often found in wet moldy plant material; leaves, grass clippings, hay, straw, woodchips, seed shells. These items are not used for captive birds for this reason. Sweeping up under the feeder is probably a good idea. Scattering your seed sweepings in the forest is probably not a problem, the fungus is in the leaf litter! Steve H. Middletown, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================