Six black-faced spoonbills, an endangered migrant bird species, on Friday last week were found dead in a fish pond in Tainan’s Sihcao Wetlands (四草溼地), while four others found in the same area exhibited abnormal symptoms.
Preliminary inspections by local animal disease prevention authorities have shown that the birds could have been infected with botulinum toxin.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said that laboratory tests were under way at the Animal Health Research Institute to determine the cause of death of the waterfowl and whether the deaths were linked to the highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza subtypes currently sweeping the nation.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government Agriculture Bureau
The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine said the necks and wings of the four surviving birds were trailing abnormally, indicating that they were likely to have been infected with botulinum toxin. The retrieved birds were being treated yesterday, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, the private and public sectors have joined forces to prevent infections from spreading.
The Wild Bird Society of Tainan said it has launched inspections covering areas within a 3km radius of private fisheries in Tainan’s Tucheng (土城) area and disinfected the sites since receiving word about the first deaths on Friday last week, while local authorities traced the source of the suspected infection and removed rotten fish from fish farms to eliminate possible breeding sites of botulinum toxin.
The Tainan Animal Health Inspection and Protection Office said two black-faced spoonbills died earlier this year in Ciguding Mountain (七股頂山) after contracting the H5 subtypes, but the latest incident indicated the first potential outbreak involving the protected species in more than a decade.
Due to recent changes in temperature, the birds probably fed on stale food that induced botulinum toxin infections, the agency said, adding that treatment to surviving birds using serums seemed to confirm their assumptions, as their conditions improved.
Tainan Bureau of Agriculture said the incident was the first case since 2003 that saw a flock of the waterfowl killed by an infection.
The black-faced spoonbill is an endangered species both domestically and internationally, having been listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.
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