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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2003: article | |
| Pennsylvania Sea Grant leads Avian Botulism Task Force By Loretta Brandon | ||||||
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Over the past three years, the Lake Erie watershed has experienced an increasing die-off of thousands of gulls, loons and other fish-eating birds as a result of type E avian botulism. Pennsylvania Sea Grant, in partnership with New York and Ohio Sea Grant programs, has taken the lead in developing a task force to address this problem and obtain funding for related research. “We serve as a clearinghouse for reports on avian botulism in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario,” Eric Obert, associate director of Pennsylvania Sea Grant, an outreach center of Penn State Erie, said. “More than 5,000 birds were reported dead by the first two weeks in November 2002, and we continued to receive reports of dead birds through the end of the year. We saw large die-offs during this year’s fall migration, mostly loons, mergansers and long-tailed ducks.” Obert, who also serves as chair of the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network for Extension Leaders, maintains and updates an e-mail list for the Avian Botulism Task Force based on reports sent to him by the U.S. Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Erie County Health Department, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Canadian Wildlife Service of Environment Canada, representatives of New York and Ohio Sea Grant programs, regional conservation organizations, area colleges and universities and wildlife biologists throughout the Great Lakes. Researchers from the United States and Canada have attended three workshops to discuss the problems associated with avian botulism in Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Research on the history and spread of type E botulism indicates the current outbreak may be related to lower Great Lakes water levels, which raise the water temperature. More sunlight penetrates the water, resulting in more algae which, as it dies, creates the anaerobic environment needed for type E botulism to survive. Scientists also believe zebra and quagga mussels, which provide food for fish, exude a form of pseudofeces that may play a role in creating small anaerobic niches necessary for the formation of botulism. As part of its outreach efforts, Pennsylvania Sea Grant distributes health advisory posters and fact sheets to those who use the Great Lakes shores, including fishermen, hunters, boaters and swimmers. Other partners in the study of the current outbreak of avian botulism include the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Center at the University of Guelph, Mercyhurst College, the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center, Cornell University’s Aquatic Animal Health Program and the Great Lakes Research Consortium. | |||||
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