Author |
Topic: WBFT: Report of Black-faced Spoonbill crisis (1) (Read 1378 times) |
|
HKBWS Office
BBS Member
BBS God
 
Posts: 1316
|
 |
WBFT: Report of Black-faced Spoonbill crisis (1)
« on: Dec 20th, 2002, 9:58pm » |
 Quote  Modify
|
Message from Dr Fang Woei-horng on Black-faced Spoonbill in Tseng-wen Estuary: 9-11 December 2002
Quote"
Chronicle of Black-faced Spoonbill crisis in Tseng-wen Estuary, December 2002
By Woei-horng Fang, Ph.D.
Vice President, Wild Bird Federation Taiwan
On December 9, 2002, the Secretariat of Wild Bird Federation Taiwan (WBFT) received the urgent report from the President of Wild Bird Society of Tainan (WBS Tainan), Ms M.-C. Hung, that a mass sickness incident of Black-faced
Spoonbill happened in Tseng-Wen Estuary early that morning and several of individuals already dead. At that time, Dr. C.-C Cheng, the President of WBFT authorized Ms. Hung representing WBFT to deal with incident at the site. The following is according Ms. Hung's chronological documentation regarding this incident from 8-11 December. The accounts of 11-18 December are from official press release and WBFT formal comment.
2002/12/08
A member of WBS Tainan, Mr. H.-F. Wu found about 100 Black-faced Spoonbill feeding at northern fish pond of major roosting area. None of the birds shown any sign of sickness, however, some egrets and herons in the region
did not join the feeding.
2002/12/09
07:15 Mr. S.-C. Chen, a member of WBS Tainan found about 11 Black-faced Spoonbill kneeing or laying down on the mudflat of major roosting area. He immediately notified Tainan County official about this situation and waded to the site moving sick birds to ashore.
11:00 Dr. F.-T. Chan, the veterinarian of Endemic Research and Conservation Center, arrived at the site and started emergency treatment.
14:00 The President and veterinarian Dr. C.-F. Li of WBS Tainan arrived the site to assist the rescue.
14:30 The food poisoning was suspected, all the sick birds and dead birds were moved to Chi-ku botanic nursery, where a temporary emergency care center was established by Tainan Hsien Livestock Disease Control Center of Tainan
County Government.
Total of 32 birds were found affected and 16 of them were found dead or dead in later of the day. All the dead birds were sent to Livestock disease control center in Tainan County. Some of the dead birds were subject to autopsy and pathological analysis, and the rest of bodies were kept frozen.
2002/12/10
06:00 WBS Tainan did a census of Black-faced Spoonbill in the region. Some 620 individuals were counted in Tseng-Wen Estuary and 8 birds in Szu-Tsao Nature Reserve.
10:15 Tainan County Government held a press conference to report the casualty of Black-faced Spoonbill in this incident, update the status of emergency care, and coordination of government agencies and NGO organizations for the
rescue.
16:00 The veterinarian of Endemic Research and Conservation Center brought 5 sick birds back to the center for treatment.
19:50 The veterinarian of WBFT, Dr. W.-L. Chi arrived sites with board members of WBS Tainan. Dr. Chi suggested that the sickness might be from food poisoning of Clostridim botulinum toxin. He recommended clean up the environment of the area to stop the spreading.
21:00 The director of Tainan Hsien Livestock Disease Control Center, Mr. Y.-C. Hsieh arrived the site, the representatives of WBFT and local NGO discussed with him about the plan of environment cleaning up in the area.
21:30 Tainan Hsien Livestock Disease Control Center obtain some anti-botulin anti-serum (anti-type A, B, E, basically is for human botulism), two birds were experimentally treated with this anti-serum. Later found no improvement
for these two birds.
In the end of the day, the death toll was 41. Some 14 birds were under intensive care.
2002/12/11
Survey of nearby region for Black-faced Spoonbills found 5 birds in Szu-Tsao Nature Reserve, and 22 birds in Yen-Sui Estuary and looked healthy. However, there were one Black-faced Spoonbill along with one great egret, one
Black-crowned night heron, and four little egrets found dead in Cheng-Hsi-Li, Tainan city.
|
|
 Logged |
From the HKBWS Office
|
|
|
HKBWS Office
BBS Member
BBS God
Posts: 1316
|
|
WBFT: Report of Black-faced Spoonbill crisis (2)
« Reply #1 on: Dec 20th, 2002, 10:00pm » |
Quote Modify
|
Message from Dr Fang on the BFS crisis: 12-18 December 2002
Quote"
2002/12/12
Tainan County Government held a press conference in Tainan Hsien Livestock Disease Control Center. Dr. W.-H. Fang represent WBFT attending the conference. Magistrate H.-C. Su expressed his concern about the whole
situation. He also considered the need to establish a Research and Conservation Center in newly designated Tseng-Wen Estuary Nature Reserve to monitor wintering Black-faced Spoonbill and their habitat. Dr. S.S. Tsai,
the professor of Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, helped the pathological analysis and sick birds treatment at the Center. He reported the update of the incident
and initial results of treatment of sick birds and pathological analysis of the cause. He said all the affected birds shown sign of limp neck and difficult to breath, this is typical in avian botulism. The extract from dead birds' stomach is highly toxic to experimental mice. They also cultured some anaerobic bacteria wait for further analysis. The analysis for other toxic substances and viral infectious agents all showed negative results. The head of Conservation Division acknowledged that Tainan County Government only has limited personals for conservation work, this time the volunteers from all the conservation groups did a great help, including early notification of the incident, helped to move sick birds to the shelter, helping sustaining treatment of the birds, and survey the area for sick birds. Tainan County Government also cleaned and drained the fishponds that were suspected to causing the poisoning to prevent further spreading of this incident.
Till the end of the day, the death toll was 49. Some 12 birds were under intensive care. Among these, 2 birds recovered well and can strand up and feed by themselves.
2002/12/13
Center for Disease Control of Department of Health held a meeting discussing the botulism incident of Black-faced Spoonbill. Dr. W.-H. Fang and Mr. K.-D. Chiang represent WBFT attended the meeting. The experts in avian disease and
human health analyzed all the evidences. They reached a conclusion that this incidence is not due to infectious disease. The avian botulism will not cause human sickness, however, the Health Bureau of Tainan County should help the local environment clean up and monitoring.
2002/12/15
Census of Black-faced Spoonbill was coordinated among all the conservation groups in Tainan area. The count number was 615. No further dead bird or sick bird was added. The birds counted were 580 in Tseng-Wen Estuary and 35
in Szu-Tsao Nature Reserve,
2002/12/16
Council of Agriculture (COA) officially announced the cause of the Black-faced Spoonbill mass death was due to avian botulism. They said Government and Academic Institutions did pathological analysis, bacterial isolation, histology analysis, toxicology analysis, parasite and viral examination. All the evidence exclude the possibility of pesticide
poisoning, water pollution and infectious epidemic. The anaerobic culture confirmed the cause of food poisoning was produced by Clostridim botulinum type C. Up to then, total 63 birds were found affected, in which 53 birds
were dead and 10 birds still under intensive care. There was no anti-toxin for avian botulism in stock in the Country. Currently, COA is importing some anti-serum for future emergency use. They also plan to do research and
development of antiserum.
Dr. C.-C. Cheng, the President of WBFT also commented about this crisis. He said the fishponds around Tseng-Wen Estuary might become eutrophia for several days' high temperature in early December. The sudden temperature
drop around December 7 to 8 might cause mass death of algae and subsequently decomposition depleted oxygen in the water. All the fish and shrimps suffocated and provided perfect condition for Clostridim botulinum to multiply rapidly. The water soluble toxin (botulin) produced by the bacteria is a potent neuro-toxin, which can easily kill the birds. The avian botulism is not uncommon in Taiwan. Previously the birds affected were mostly domestic fowls or some common waterfowls, thus was overlooked. Eventually this type of incident can be prevented by environment monitoring and clean up. And this is what we are lacking and need to be improved. For the conservation of Black-faced Spoonbill, we are very glad Council of Agriculture and Tainan County Government designate the Tseng-Wen Estuary as an 'Important Wildlife Area' on November 1, 2002. However, it is very sad we lost almost 5% of whole world population of this species in just three days crisis. From this incident we learnt that there are whole lot things to be done for this Reserve, especially the management and monitoring mechanism.
2002/12/18
Some good news at last. Seven of eight avian botulism affected Black-faced Spoonbill in Tainan Hsien Livestock Disease Control Center recovered and could stand up and feed for themselves. The last one still under intensive
care was a young bird.
"Unquote
|
|
Logged |
From the HKBWS Office
|
|
|
|
BBS
Help
Search
Members
Login
Register
Reply
Send Topic
Print