Songbird epidemic: take down birdfeeders for now

 

July 8, 2021: 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, sick birds had turned up in Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership. 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. 

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Researchers note that mass bird mortalities are not uncommon, especially 

among species that form dense flocks or gather at feeders. In the mid-1990s, 

bird watchers in the eastern United States noticed that house finches, a common 

introduced songbird, were dying in relatively large numbers from an illness 

characterized by swollen and encrusted eyes. Researchers ultimately determined 

the cause was a bacterium, Mycoplasma gallisepticum, that had likely spread 

from domestic poultry. Over the past few decades, researchers have also 

tracked outbreaks of West Nile virus, avian influenza, and Salmonella that 

caused noticeable kills.

Many of those suspects have been ruled out in this case, according to the 2 July 

statement. But researchers continue to look at other possibilities. They are using 

electron microscopy to examine tissues for telltale damage, for example, and 

employing a battery of tests to detect suspect microbes, viruses, parasites, and 

chemical pollutants.

Many of the dead birds that have been tested were infected with Mycoplasma 

bacteria. That is not uncommon, Evans says, but the bacterium has evolved to 

become more infectious and deadly, and it might be playing a role in the current 

outbreak. “In terms of mycoplasma this might be something new,” he says. 

Others, however, are skeptical, noting Mycoplasma rarely affects fledglings.

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