Hi, I work at the Lab of O, and I suppose that I could be labelled a "disease ecologist", but I want to make clear that I'm not speaking for the Lab of Ornithology here.
Anyway, in terms of spread in NYS, I've heard informally that whatever this disease is, it's seems to have started to appear in the area around Ithaca. In my opinion there's no way that any human action is going to stop the spread of the disease, if it's caused by a pathogen (e.g., bacteria, virus, protozoa). I cannot think of a single wildlife disease (and extremely few human diseased, i.e. just smallpox) that has been stopped. Spread might be slowed, but that's about it. Given that we don't know the cause of the disease, even slowing spread seems unlikely to me. There are not clearly obvious recommendations for actions that would be certain to have a positive effect. Taking down feeders might help, if the disease is caused by a directly transmitted pathogen. However, if it's really true that mostly young birds are coming down with the disease, they might not be the most likely to be attending bird feeders...of course it might just be that younger birds are more likely to be noticed. If the disease is caused by a vector-transmitted pathogen (mosquito-transmitted, for example) then actions like taking down bird feeders likely would have extremely minimal effects, at best. Only if the disease is somehow caused by a human-made toxin could there be a chance for really effective action, I'm guessing. Having written all of the above, whatever recommendations I've seen couldn't hurt, and so they seem reasonable from that perspective. We'll have to wait a few months to see if we can detect any effect of the populations of some bird species, looking at data from eBird or Project FeederWatch, but that's something that should probably be done this fall. I know that wouldn't help the situation, but right now there's no clear information about the impact of the disease on bird populations. Individual birds are definitely dying, but the magnitude of the effect on populations as a whole is unknown, as far as I know. Wesley ________________________________ From: bounce-125761038-3494...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-125761038-3494...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of Thomas Yaglowski <t...@coburndesign.com> Sent: Saturday, July 10, 2021 09:29 To: CAYUGABIRDS-L <cayugabird...@list.cornell.edu> Subject: [cayugabirds-l] Mystery bird virus I've been seeing quite a bit about the mystery bird virus that is killing many birds. My understanding is that it originated down South and is spreading rapidly to the northeast. A friend has relayed that it is now in Chautauqua county and the Hudson Valley region. What is everyone's opinion on how to help stop the spread? Are you already taking down feeders and sanitizing them? Any advice and suggestions from the experts at the Lab of Ornithology would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Tom -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
