06 August 2010
Newcastle Disease strikes hundreds of cormorants and gulls on Marsh Lake in Big Stone County.The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says the viral disease has killed about five hundred double-crested cormorants and four hundred ring-billed gulls at the lake between Appleton and Ortonville. Another die-off of 50 cormorants has been discovered at Wells Lake near Faribault. Newcastle Disease is not new to Minnesota. Newcastle Disease is not new to Minnesota. The last outbreak covered a seven-county area in 2008, when about 2,400 birds died. In 1992, multiple mortality events affected double-crested cormorant colonies across the Great Lakes, upper Midwest, and Canada, with more than 35,000 birds estimated dead.
Symptoms are neurologic, including inability to fly or dive and a droopy head or twisted neck. DNR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services staff are conducting site clean-ups and collecting samples for lab analysis at both locations.
Epizootic ND with high rates of morbidity and mortality was observed in young-of-the-year (YOY) Double-crested Cormorants in Canada in 1990 and subsequently recurred both in Canada and the United States throughout that decade. This is the only wild bird species in which large-scale mortality from ND has been recognized.