- Hello, Jeff - We can add this one to the ever-increasing
number of fish and animal die-offs. Here is another sign of a planet in
trouble. The Gulf of Mexico is dead, and its creatures both land and sea
are failing. They cannot live in the pollution as evidenced by the illness
described below. Humans? We are next!
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- Patricia Doyle
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- From ProMED mail The Tuscaloosa News 1-10-4
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- Arthur Nelson, an Alabama fisherman working south of
Grand Isle, reported this week that several pelicans died on his boat and
that many more were sick.
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- "They had red sores on their bills and their necks,
holes in the pouches, and when they tried to eat the fish, they would fall
out the holes," Nelson said. "The last 2 days, there were 8 or
10 birds dying on the boat. Never seen that before."
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- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are looking
into the matter.
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- Russ Wilson, an agency field supervisor in Lafayette,
said there was no cause for alarm from a health perspective. Pelican kills
are known to occur during cold weather, he said.
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- "We have to look into this business with the pouches,"
he added. "It's significant enough that we need to see whether we
can get samplings."
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- Buddy Gautreaux, an agency biologist, said there is no
way to tell whether a chemical, parasites or disease is to blame.
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- Brown pelicans, Louisiana's official state bird, are
numerous but still considered a threatened species. The birds disappeared
from Louisiana in the late 1950s, largely due to pesticides entering the
food chain. Between 1968 and 1980, a massive replenishing effort saw birds
that were native to Florida relocated on North Island in the Chandeleurs
and Queen Bess Island in Barataria Bay. Nesting colonies also were set
up on Isle Dernieres off the Terrebonne Parish coast and on various mud
banks on the Mississippi River.
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- In 2002, the estimated Louisiana pelican population was
50 000.
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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