Tipitip
Power Member
- Nov 26, 2018
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For two months, a mysterious bird disease had been rippling across parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. Now, it had apparently reared its head in Kentucky. Casey quickly asked for samples to ship to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study (SCWDS) in Athens, Georgia.
In April, scores of birds in the greater Washington, D.C., area began displaying strange symptoms. Their eyes were swollen and crusty; some became disoriented, started twitching, and died. “They were having a hard time seeing,” says Nicole Nemeth of the SCWDS. “Sometimes they don’t seem to be able to use their hind legs.”
By the end of May, similar reports were rolling in from across Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. By June, the disease had spread to Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. To date, thousands of sick and dying birds have been reported to SCWDS and other wildlife disease centers in nearby states. Casey’s department alone has gotten more than 1,200 calls since that first sample.
Although SCWDS is one of several state and federal agencies, including the United States Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC), currently working together to diagnose the mysterious ailment, none of the labs have been able to identify the cause of the birds’ deaths so far.
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