fungus that creates AIDS-like symptoms in birds

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Birds Could Be Dining On Deadly Toxin

Substance can develop in storage or backyard feeder

by DINA CAPPIELLO

http://www.imakenews.com/pureaircontrols/e_article000301033.cfm?

x=b3vpf5W,bvtv58G#a301033

STOPPING SPREAD

Tips to prevent aflatoxin in your backyard feeder:

•Clean out bird feeders frequently, drying completely

•Fill feeders with only three days worth of food

•Freeze seed until ready to use

Texas A & M University-Kingsville

The next biological attack could be waged from the backyard bird

feeder.

Research conducted at Texas A & M University-Kingsville has detected

high levels of aflatoxin — a byproduct of a fungus that creates AIDS-

like symptoms in birds — in 20 percent of over-the-counter bird feed

purchased in Texas.

The naturally occurring toxin, according to a more recent follow-up

study, will kill half of all cardinals that feed on seed tainted with

500 parts per billion of aflatoxin. One of the feed bags tested by

the Kingsville-based researchers in 1999 had aflatoxin in

concentrations of 2,000 parts per billion, enough to kill a cardinal

that ingested it in a day and a half.

" We started testing various bags of bird seeds around the state and

we were finding some of the bags having problems with aflatoxin, "

said Henke, a professor of wildlife science at the university's

Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute.

There are no regulations governing aflatoxin levels in wildlife feed,

although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sets a 20-parts-per-

billion limit in grains for human consumption.

Part of the problem in controlling aflatoxin is that it can develop

in the field, in storage or in the moldy corners of a feeder in a

Houston backyard.

" It can occur at any time, " Henke said. " We are not necessarily

saying that people should not feed birds at backyard feeders. But be

responsible for your feeding. "

Henke first started studying aflatoxin in the milo and corn mixtures

scattered along ranch roads to feed quail. But Henke also noticed

cardinals, blackbirds and songbirds eating the free meal. He wondered

if popular backyard birds could be affected by the toxin.

Research conducted three years ago by Texas Tech scientists showed

levels of aflatoxin in quail feeders reaching dangerous levels.

" The environment we have is such you get condensation and feed can

get wet ... and you can get growth of different molds, " said Brad

Dabbert, a Texas Tech associate professor.

Aflatoxin has been blamed for numerous die-offs in the wild and on

farms. It was first discovered in 1960, when more than 100,000 young

turkeys on poultry farms in England died in the course of the few

months.

Yet, commercial feed alone isn't the only problem. Dabbert and Henke

have found aflatoxin in wild seeds and grains.

But in that area, more research needs to be done to determine how

exactly the aflatoxin is produced.

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