Mystery (neurological) disease strikes UK birds

September 1, 2002

Mystery disease strikes UK birds

19:00 28 August 02

Britain's sparrows and starlings are dying from an unknown disease. While

tests have ruled out West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes and

has killed several people in the US this year, researchers have no idea what

is to blame or if humans could be affected.

Ornithologists in Scotland have reported several cases of a strange

neurological condition since 1994. Young birds with the disease can't fly,

instead walking round in tight circles, doing somersaults and twisting their

heads bizarrely.

Now the swollen brains of birds that died of the disease have been analysed

for the first time, because of fears it might be West Nile.

" I'm glad to say it wasn't that or any of the related viruses, " says Tom

Pennycott of the ish Agricultural College's Veterinary Science Division

in Ayr. But so far his team has drawn a complete blank when it comes to

identifying the disease.

Less food

Conservationists were already concerned about the widespread decline in the

numbers of sparrows and starlings across Britain.

But the mystery disease is unlikely to be the cause, because the only cases

so far have been in Scotland. " We've not found an answer to the decline, but

we've found a new mystery, " says Pennycott.

" We're not talking big numbers, but it's certainly there and it might be the

tip of the iceberg, " he adds.

Pennycott may have found other clues about the cause of the decline. In work

not yet published, he found the salmonella food-poisoning bacteria in

two-thirds of the dead sparrows brought to him.

A paper in this week's Nature, however, blames the decline on changes in

farming practices that mean there's less food for birds in winter.

Andy Coghlan

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