As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Thursday 3 July 2014

Die-offs of band-tailed pigeons connected to newly discovered parasite

Date:
July 2, 2014

Source:
University of California - Davis

Summary:
A new parasite, along with one possibly found in T-Rex, has been implicated in the recent deaths of thousands of Pacific Coast band-tailed pigeons. Avian trichomonosis is an emerging and potentially fatal disease that creates severe lesions that can block the esophagus, ultimately preventing the bird from eating or drinking, or the trachea, leading to suffocation. The disease may date back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, as lesions indicative of trichomonosis were found recently in T-Rex skeletons.


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