Band-tailed pigeons dying on the Central Coast

Jan 30, 2015 9:36 PM by Alexandra Pierce, KSBY News

Hundreds of band-tailed pigeons are dying in Santa Barbara County.

Due to the increased mortality rate the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is closely monitoring this population.

CDFW's investigators have determined they're dying from Avian Trichomonosis. It's a disease which only infects birds.

People living in the Santa Ynez and Solvang areas are particularly noticing the effects of the disease because these pigeons spend their winters on the coast.

Julia Di Sieno is the Co-Founder and operator of the Animal Rescue Team in Solvang.

Since the day after Christmas she's had hundreds of infected band-tailed pigeons dropped off at her facility bleeding from their eyes and mouths.

"This die-off here is the largest in the entire state at the moment," Di Sieno said.

Continued ...

Die-offs of band-tailed pigeons connected to newly discovered parasite

Date:

July 2, 2014

Source:

University of California - Davis

Summary:

A new parasite, along with one possibly found in T-Rex, has been implicated in the recent deaths of thousands of Pacific Coast band-tailed pigeons. Avian trichomonosis is an emerging and potentially fatal disease that creates severe lesions that can block the esophagus, ultimately preventing the bird from eating or drinking, or the trachea, leading to suffocation. The disease may date back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, as lesions indicative of trichomonosis were found recently in T-Rex skeletons.

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