Publications

Animals become victims of salt poisoning or toxicosis when toxic levels of sodium and chloride accumulate in the blood after they ingest large amounts of salt or, in some species, are deprived of water. For birds, salt sources may include saline water and road salt. Normally, the salt glands of birds (Fig. 47.1) excrete sodium and chloride to maintain the proper physiologic chemical...

This concluding chapter is intended to further inform the reader of the broad spectrum of causes affecting the health of wild birds by illustrating a variety of disease conditions that are not described elsewhere in this Manual. The information in this chapter is not intended to represent a comprehensive description of other causes for ill-health and death in wild birds. Instead...

Newcastle Disease (ND) in domestic poultry is a focus for concern throughout much of the world’s agricultural community because of severe economic losses that have occurred from illness, death, and reduced egg production following infection with pathogenic or disease causing strains. Prior to 1990, this disease had rarely been reported as a cause of mortality in the free-living native...

Epizootics of scaly leg disease caused by infection with the submacroscopic mite Knemidokoptes jamaicensis (Acari: Knemidokoptidae) in migratory American robins (Turdus migratorius) from a residential area of Tulsa (Oklahoma, USA) are documented during the winters (December through February) of 1993–94 and 1994–95. Estimates of 60 to >80% of the birds in several different flights...

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was developed for detecting duck plague virus. A 765-bp EcoRI fragment cloned from the genome of the duck plague vaccine (DP-VAC) virus was sequenced for PCR primer development. The fragment sequence was found by GenBank alignment searches to be similar to the 3′ ends of an undefined open reading frame and the gene for DNA polymerase protein in...

No abstract available.

Avian botulism kills thousands of waterbirds annually throughout North America, but management efforts to reduce its effects have been hindered because environmental conditions that promote outbreaks are poorly understood. We measured sediment and water variables in 32 pairs of wetlands with and without a current outbreak of avian botulism. Wetlands with botulism outbreaks had greater...

We describe a case of erysipelas in a free-ranging endangered Hawaiian crow. The partially scavenged carcass exhibited gross emaciation and petechial hemorrhages in both lungs. Microscopy revealed multiple necrotic foci associated with gram-positive rods in the liver and adrenal, diffuse acute proximal tubular necrosis of kidney, diffuse necrosis and inflammation of proventricular mucosa

We collected carcasses of 52 common eider Somateria mollissima adults and ducklings and blood samples from 11 nesting eider hens in the Gulf of Finland near Helsinki in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Samples of liver tissue were analysed for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, selenium and zinc. Blood was analysed for lead, mercury and...

Unprecedented mortality occurred in bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at DeGray Lake, Arkansas, during the winters of 1994-1995 and 1996-1997. The first eagles were found dead during November, soon after arrival from fall migration, and deaths continued into January during both episodes. In total, 29 eagles died at or near DeGray Lake in the winter of 1994-1995 and 26 died in the...

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for the detection of type C botulinum toxin (Clostridium botulinum) in wild birds. This simple, antigen-capture ELISA utilizes polystyrene immunosticks as the solid substrate, chicken antitoxin (IgY) as the coating antibody, rabbit antitoxin as the primary antibody, and peroxidase-labeled goat-anti-rabbit as the secondary...

No abstract available.