Blood-sucking parasitic eyeworm a culprit to 2010 quail decline, researchers believe

Date:

August 14, 2014

Source:

Texas Tech University

Summary:

In the summer of 2010, the Rolling Plains of West Texas expected a bumper crop of quail. By October, they nearly had vanished. The find out why, researchers necropsied hundreds of birds throughout a 19-million-acre area of land and discovered large numbers of parasitic eyeworms in many of the birds they sampled.

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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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Parasite hitting bird populations in Sussex

A deadly disease is having a devastating impact on bird populations, an ornithological enthusiast was warned.

Greenfinch populations in Sussex are thought to have dropped by up to a third and chaffinch populations by a fifth, according to a study by the Garden Bird Health Initiative.

The garden birds are suffering from trichomonosis, a parasite which infects the digestive system of mostly finches, doves and pigeons.

It causes lesions in the throat which makes it hard for the bird to swallow food leading it to die of starvation.

Affected birds appear “puffed-up” with fluffed-up plumage and are generally lethargic.

Peter Calladine, member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and Royal Ornithological Society, said: “It’s very bad news. It is very widespread and causing huge losses to the bird population in Sussex. The numbers have fallen terribly. We are talking thousands.

“Greenfinches seem to be the most affected. The disease is very distinctive. They get all puffed up and it’s quite obvious they’re dying.”

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