Wildlife officials in Idaho are investigating a suspected avian cholera outbreak that took the lives of about 2,000 migrating snow geese.
The geese, which were journeying from the U.S. Southwest and Mexico toward Northern Alaska nesting grounds, were found at the state's at Mud Lake and Market Lake wildlife management areas, near Terreton.
Test results have not yet confirmed the deaths were the result of avian cholera, but officials said the symptoms seen in the downed birds point to the deadly bacteria.
VIDEO: Why Birds Are Always Flying into Things
"Outbreaks of avian cholera have occurred sporadically in the region over the past few decades," explained Idaho Upper Snake Regional Supervisor Steve Schmidt, in a press release. "The important thing is to quickly collect as many of the carcasses as possible, to prevent other birds from feeding on the infected birds."
For that reason, the carcasses of the animals have been collected and the plan is to incinerate them. Officials said about 20 eagles were seen near the Mud Lake carcasses, but due to a delayed incubation of the disease, they can't be sure whether or not the birds have been infected.
Officials stressed that while humans are not at high risk from the bacteria that causes avian cholera, residents should not handle any dead birds, as that could accidentally spread the disease to other wildlife.
This is not really the first time I have heard of birds sky diving into the ground because of some disease. But still it isn't the best situation that two thousand birds have just spontaneously died especially if it might be a disease that if any unwanted contact came about then this could spread and cause maybe a wide spread killing of not just birds but could kill humans and other wild life animals. This is a problem that would be best fixed early rather than later on when its already a major issue.
ReplyDeleteI hope that this doesn't affect anymore birds. 2,000 at once is alot to die for any species so these birds populations greatly decreased. Hopefully they can control it before it kills 2,000 more birds.
ReplyDeleteCan this disease spread? If so there will be many birds dying. But 2000 birds is a lot to die from this one disease. I want to know how scientists know that this disease killed them.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about this before, but i think that it needs to be stoped. 2000 at once is a lot of birds. I hope if it is a disease that humans cant get it. Hopefully scientists can control this before any more birds die.
ReplyDeleteI never heard about this disease before but 2,000 birds is alot for that species. Im surprise that the species isn't extinct by that disease killing the birds.
ReplyDeletei think this is so sad. 2,000 birds were killed from a disease and that is horrible. I hope that scientist can figure out the disease so that they can cure so birds wont continue to be killed by it. Im glad that the disease cant pass to humans. I think its pretty self explanatory to not touch dead birds.
ReplyDeleteHopefully they can control this disease or stop it. If it spread it could kill a lot more birds. It is suprising that so many could die at once. The species could even go extinct because of this.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this disease before. 2,000 birds dying each time all at once is a massive number, and i am suprised this species hasn't become extinct yet. Hopefully scientist can stop it, i also hope this disease can't spread to humans.
ReplyDelete2,000 birds dying at once? This is a major obsticle for the bird species. i hope this doesnt affect anymore birds. Hopefully a cure can be formed to stop this outbreak.
ReplyDeleteI have heard about birds doing this before form another disease, but don't remember what it was. But I hope the disease don't spread to many other birds. If it does that species could die in the next few years, maybe decades.
ReplyDeleteI hope this doesn't spread to any other species since it's a very contagious disease. Someone needs to find a way to get rid of it before other birds catch it. I hope that it can be fixed instead of being something that gets worse over time. Even though humans have a small risk of getting it, this should still be treated as a big deal because wildlife can get it so easily.
ReplyDeleteI hope that this disease doesn't spread to any other species. That's a lot dying at once and we're dealing with a lot of extinction already so a less populated species having a chance to catch this isn't what we did.
ReplyDeleteIt'd also be very dangerous for this to get to humans.
This is very sad that many birdies are dying from a disease. I hope this disease doesn't keep spreading because, knowing it can take out a whole entire species in a short amount of time is scary. We don't need other species dying. Knowing that birdies are disappearing in amount of seconds is sad. If it spreads down to humans, it could really make our population decrease to the point, we might not be here anymore. I just hope it doesn't keep spreading.
ReplyDeleteWe need to find a way to stop this disease cause this is terrible and sad that the birds are dying from the disease. It could make a species extinct. I hope this doesnt spread to other kinds of birds. It could also spread to us.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've ever heard of this disease. It does, however, remind of something I heard about many years back. I hope we find a way to cure this disease because the birds don't deserve to die. Especially if there is a chance this can affect other species, and not just birds, it would be best if we can help to cure it as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this disease. I think its sad that birds are dying because of it. Although i dont like birds, this is horrible. We need to find a way to stop it soon. I hope this doesnt affect any more birds.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first time hearing of these disease and I can hope to find a way to stop it. Hearing that all these birds are dieing makes me sad. Hopefully they don't pass this onto humans because that would be scary and a lot of people could die from it,
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time i hear about his disease.
ReplyDeleteWe need to find a way to stop this disease it killing over 2,000 birds. This will affect many more birds if we dont stop this.
i knew that the disease killed humans when nyc was in the come up cause of the lack of clean water which is a major effect in all life including animals I thought there bodies could resets it better than a human body can but that's a lot of birds died but there are still many that take flight
ReplyDeleteI have heard of this disease but I didn't know this could kill birds. Hopefully this disease doesn't spread to wildlife. Scientists should find a way to stop the spread. This could cause extinction to this birds.
ReplyDeleteIt was prolly soe disease in the air because that is crazy! I cant believe that many died atone time. It is prolly record breaking for that many to die at one time in the air.
ReplyDelete