How birds become exposed to botulism, Cooley explained, begins with a bacteria called clostridium botulism. This bacteria thrives in water with low oxygen levels producing a toxin that can get into sediments. Invasive species like quagga and zebra mussels filter the sediments and pick up the bacteria which they pass onto other aquatic life like round gobies which eat the mussels. From there, birds eat the fish.
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2007/11/24/news/news04.txt
death toll high for Great Lakes birds
As a conservative estimate of the total shoreline distance between these endpoints is roughly 350 miles, potentially 7500 birds have potentially perished within this region alone...
The top five species that we have documented [deaths of] are Common Loon (508), Long-tailed duck (505), White-winged scoter (207)...
The most notable Common Loon among our discoveries was a banded adult from Seney NWR who had been monitored for 14 years and during this time produced 17 chicks, including one this season. His discovery stands as the first evidence that a portion of the very high Common Loon numbers represents birds breeding in Michigan, where the species remains a threatened species...
Carcasses from a wide variety of bird species collected along the lake have tested positive for botulism E at the Michigan DNR's Wildlife Disease Lab. This current outbreak on Lake Michigan follows a trend of increasing botulism-related mortality on the Great Lakes; only Lake Superior has thus far remained exempt from the problem.
More about botulism E here:
http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/habitat/avian-botulism-faq.html
Carcasses from a wide variety of bird species collected along the lake have tested positive for botulism E - at the Michigan DNR’s Wildlife Disease Lab.http://www.michigan.gov/emergingdiseases/0,1607,7-186-25805-75891--,00.html
Another ballast water gift. Will Congress ever slam the door on the sickness introduced by oceangoing vessels whose owners can (and must) shoulder the cost of stopping invasive species?
Comment and link from David Dempsey The Great Lakes Blogger
