Management of avian botulism and survival of molting mallards / Daniel Dean Evelsizer
Material type:
TextSeries: Thesis ; (M.Sc.)Publication details: Saskatoon : University of Saskatchewan, 2002Description: xi, 59 p. : ill. ; 28 cmAbstract: Avian botulism outbreaks are perpetuated by proliferation of toxin producing Clostridium botulinum in bird carcasses and consumption of maggots containing toxin by healthy birds. Removal and disposal of bird carcasses has been advocated for management of outbreaks but this technique is expensive and its effect on reducing waterfowl mortality under field conditions is unknown. Therefore, I radio-marked 335 molting (new primaries <10 mm) mallaards (Anas platyrhynchos) on 11 lakes in western Canada during midsummer 1999-2001, and monitored their survival for 30 days to evaluate whether survival was greater on lakes with carcass removal. Botulism occurred on 10 of the lakes. On five removal (treatment) lakes greater-than-normal effort was made to remove carcasses as soon as dead birds were detected. On six non-removal (control) lakes no carcasses were removed. In 1999, estimated 30-day survival probability was 4.6% (SE=0.035) on one large wetland with removal and 4.3% (SE=0.067) and 38.6%
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Avian botulism outbreaks are perpetuated by proliferation of toxin producing Clostridium botulinum in bird carcasses and consumption of maggots containing toxin by healthy birds. Removal and disposal of bird carcasses has been advocated for management of outbreaks but this technique is expensive and its effect on reducing waterfowl mortality under field conditions is unknown. Therefore, I radio-marked 335 molting (new primaries <10 mm) mallaards (Anas platyrhynchos) on 11 lakes in western Canada during midsummer 1999-2001, and monitored their survival for 30 days to evaluate whether survival was greater on lakes with carcass removal. Botulism occurred on 10 of the lakes. On five removal (treatment) lakes greater-than-normal effort was made to remove carcasses as soon as dead birds were detected. On six non-removal (control) lakes no carcasses were removed. In 1999, estimated 30-day survival probability was 4.6% (SE=0.035) on one large wetland with removal and 4.3% (SE=0.067) and 38.6%