USGS National Wildlife Health Center
Quarterly Wildlife Mortality Report April 1998 to June 1998 |
Reported State |
Location |
Dates |
Species |
Mortality |
Diagnosis |
Reported By |
Lake Dardanelle |
AR |
04/13/98 - 04/13/98 |
American Coot |
20 (e) |
Enteritis |
NW |
Mid-Hacienda Flood Plain |
CA |
06/10/98 - ongoing |
American Coot, Mallard |
7,500 |
Botulism Type C |
CFG |
Mullet Island, Salton Sea |
CA |
04/03/98 - 05/06/98 |
Double-crested Cormorant |
1,000 (e) |
Newcastle Disease Virus suspect |
NW |
Pala Slough |
CA |
01/25/98 - 01/30/98 |
American Coot; American Wigeon; Green-winged Teal; Unidentified bird |
1,485 |
Avian cholera |
CFG |
Wassaw NWR |
GA |
05/21/98 - 05/28/98 |
Red Knot Sanderling; Semipalmated Plover; Western Sandpiper; Laughing
Gull |
10 |
Botulism Type C |
NW |
Athens |
GA |
06/08/98 - 06/08/98 |
House Finch |
1 |
Conjunctivitis |
SC |
Market Lake WMA - East Springs Marsh |
ID |
03/20/98 - 03/20/98 |
Trumpeter Swan |
10 |
Lead poisoning |
NW |
Cape Cod National Seashore |
MA |
05/18/98 - 06/08/98 |
Common Eider |
1,000 (e) |
Emaciation |
NW |
Wye Mills |
MD |
04/10/98 - 04/10/98 |
Canada Goose; Unidentified duck |
13 |
Toxicosis: diazinon |
NW |
Baltimore Co. |
MD |
05/01/98 - 05/01/98 |
House Finch |
1 |
Conjunctivitis |
SC |
Isle Royale NP |
MI |
03/01/97 - ongoing |
Gray Wolf |
15 |
Open |
MI |
Near West Glacier |
MT |
03/10/98 - 04/15/98 |
Common Redpoll; Pine Siskin; Dark-eyed Junco; Evening Grosbeak;
Black-capped Chickadee |
20 (e) |
Salmonellosis |
NW |
Dogtown WPA |
ND |
05/25/98 - 06/20/98 |
Tiger Salamander |
3,000 |
Hepatic / Splenic Necrosis |
NW |
West Sister Island |
OH |
06/01/98 - 06/29/98 |
Herring Gull |
60 (e) |
Open |
NW |
Washington Cty. |
RI |
06/19/98 - 06/24/98 |
Greater Shearwater |
11 |
Emaciation |
NW |
Lake Thompson |
SD |
03/20/98 - 04/05/98 |
Mallard; Snow Goose |
1,000 (e) |
Avian cholera suspect |
NW |
Davidson, Rutherford Ctys. |
TN |
06/03/98 - 06/03/98 |
Blue Jay; Starling |
2 |
Conjunctivitis M. sturni |
SC |
Chincoteague, Accomack Ctys. |
VA |
03/31/98 - 03/31/98 |
House Finch |
1 |
Conjunctivitis |
NW |
Maxwell |
VA |
04/01/98 - 04/01/98 |
Hybrid Mallard; Muscovy |
28 |
Duck plague |
NW |
Shawano Lake |
WI |
04/03/98 - 04/10/98 |
American Coot; Lesser Scaup; Ring-necked duck |
13 |
Parasitism |
NW, WI |
Madison |
WI |
05/22/98 - 05/22/98 |
House Finch |
1 |
Conjunctivitis |
NW |
Updates and Corrections: |
Reported State |
Location |
Dates |
Species |
Mortality |
Diagnosis |
Reported By |
Eel River Delta |
CA |
12/17/97 - 01/07/98 |
American Coot; American Wigeon; Northern Shoveler; Unidentified Bird |
2,570 |
Avian cholera suspect |
CFG |
Imperial Wildlife Area |
CA |
12/31/97 - 01/27/98 |
American Coot; Ruddy; Northern Shoveler; Green-winged Teal; Snow Goose |
458 |
Avian cholera suspect |
CFG |
Brevard, Gilchrist Ctys. |
FL |
02/02/98 - 03/15/98 |
Brown-headed Cowbird; Northern Cardinal |
22 |
Salmonellosis |
FL |
Summerville |
GA |
02/04/98 - 02/04/98 |
Common Grackle |
30 (e) |
Toxicosis: diazinon |
SC |
Somerset, Liberty, Monson, Dover, Foxcroft |
ME |
12/13/97 - 03/30/98 |
Common Redpoll; American Goldfinch |
20 (e) |
Salmonellosis |
NW |
(e) = estimate; * = morbidity and mortality
National Wildlife
Health Center (NW); Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study
(SC); California Department of Fish and Game - Wildlife Investigations
Laboratory (CFG); University of Florida-Gainesville (FL), Rose Lake
Wildlife Disease Laboratory-Michigan (MI), Wisconsin Department
of Natural Resources (WI).
Written and
compiled by Kathryn Converse, Kimberli Miller, Linda Glaser, Terry
Creekmore, and Audra Schrader, National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC).
To report mortality or if you would like specific information on
these mortalities, contact one of the following NWHC staff: Western
US Kathryn Converse; Eastern US--Kimberli Miller; Hawaiian Islands--Thierry
Work. Phone (608) 270-2400, FAX (608) 270-2415 or E-mail kathy_converse@usgs.gov.
National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, WI
53711.
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Quarterly Mortality Reports |
The following
highlights wildlife morbidity and mortality events reported to the
National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) from April through June 1998.
There were 26 reports this quarter.
Newcastle Disease
along with colony abandonment is suspected to be the cause of mortality
again this year in a double-crested cormorant colony in Salton Sea
located in southern California. Mortality, estimated at 6000 young
of the year cormorants, occurred early this spring on the Mullet
Island colony of 2700 nests. Older juveniles exhibited the characteristic
neurological signs of ND including spastic paralysis of one wing
or leg. Young of the year birds were found sick or dead and ranged
in age from nestlings (<3 weeks of age) to immature birds (3-8 weeks
of age). Diagnostic evaluation revealed the microscopic lesions
in brain and spinal cord associated with ND but a virus has not
been isolated from these birds. Virus isolation and identification
of the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) are required to confirm the
diagnosis. Newcastle Disease caused significant mortality last year
in this same nesting colony.
A large die-off
of tiger salamanders was reported to NWHC by USFWS personnel from
a 3-part wetland in south central North Dakota. Mortality was first
observed in late May in the smallest section of the wetland and
spread throughout the wetland within a month's time. Salamanders
in a late stage of larval development appeared to be sick, moving
slowly, and staying close to the water's edge. Other species using
the wetland including birds, fish, and turtles, appeared to be unaffected.
Sick and dead salamanders were submitted to the NWHC for diagnostic
evaluation. Evidence of cell death in the liver and spleen was observed
microscopically but no cause for these lesions has been found. Diagnostic
evaluation continues. Last year, the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife
Health Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan found that a virus was
the cause of mortality in tiger salamanders from several sites in
the prairie provinces.
In April 1998,
an incident of mortality in American coots in northern Wisconsin
was again attributed to infection by the trematode Leygonimus
sp. As in the fall of 1997, concurrent mortality in lesser scaup
on the same lake was attributed to infection by the trematode Sphaeridiotrema
sp. This is the second known record of this trematode infecting
coots in North America.
The New York
Department of Conservation reported ten cases of individual poisonings
in birds that are not listed in the mortality events table but merit
comment. Intoxication with Brodifacoum, an anticoagulant rodenticide,
was confirmed in a great horned owl collected in Dutchess County
in June 1997, a great horned owl collected in Genesee County in
April 1997 and in a screech owl collected in Erie County in October
1997. The owls were secondarily poisoned, most likely due to eating
animals that had ingested the rodenticide. Chlordane poisoning was
confirmed in an American crow and a blue jay collected July 1997
and a red-tailed hawk collected in September 1997 in three towns
in Suffolk County, Long Island; in an American crow collected in
Stamford, Connecticut in July 1997; and in a blue jay collected
July 1997 in Nassau County, Long Island. Chlordane is a persistent
toxicant used in the past for termite and turfgrass insect control.
A house sparrow collected July 1997 and a white-throated sparrow
collected December 1997 were non-target species that were poisoned
by ingestion of Avitrol which is widely used in New York for pigeon
control.
For additional information please contact Dr. Scott Wright,
USGS National Wildlife Health Center - Disease Investigations Branch Chief, at 608-270-2460 or
Paul Slota, USGS National Wildlife Health Center - Support Services
Branch Chief at 608-270-2420.
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