Non-native birds killed

By Janice Yi

Freshmen Kevin Williams of Aviation and Sammee Barron of LAS were walking across College Court outside Florida Avenue Residence Hall on Jan. 18 when they noticed a small crowd of people gathered in the middle of the road. When they approached, they saw a single black starling lying on the pavement.

The bird was convulsing uncontrollably in seizures.

“It just had something like a meltdown,” Williams said. “It was very disturbing.”

After Williams and Barron wrapped it in newspaper and transported it to the Small Animal Clinic, located in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the College of Veterinary Medicine, the bird died on the counter before any aid could have been administered.

It was then that Williams and Barron were told the starling had consumed a poison called Avitrol, a toxic pesticide commonly mixed in with bird feed for the purpose of nuisance bird management – a yearly practice that the College of ACES has participated in since 2003, which is now again being recommenced.

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Ralf M”ller, associate director for operations facilities, planning and management at ACES, explained that the control of nuisance birds is considered essential to protect the health of livestock, the integrity of research, and the health and safety of employees and buildings. The droppings left by these birds – namely blackbirds, starlings and pigeons – contain pathogenic fungi and bacteria that could cause a number of respiratory diseases in humans and animals.

M”ller, the program overseer, said there have not been any cases of infection among humans or animals.

However, at the University’s Dairy Farm and Beef/Sheep Facility where hundreds of target birds flock, attracted to bird feed, workers must wear raincoats to protect themselves against contamination. The birds defecate on the building facades, in the animals’ drinking water, and even on the animals themselves.

“Several years ago we were allowed to shoot pigeons,” M”ller said. “But after 9/11 we were not allowed to discharge or carry any guns on campus anymore.”

Now the bird control program makes use of “Avitrol Corn Chops,” which is one part Avitrol and six parts cracked corn. The special feed is distributed in a trough at both the Dairy and the Beef/Sheep Facility.

Once consumed, the Avitrol uses a chemical frightening agent to cause affected birds to emit cries and visual displays of distress, according to the Avitrol Corporation website. This behavior will frighten the flock and in most cases cause them to leave.

The agent has a high mortality rate, which is increased during colder seasons, as birds tend to eat more when they are colder. An estimated number of 5,000 birds were killed in the first year of pesticide usage, M”ller said.

“Somebody has to do it,” M”ller said. “But there is healing in prevention, like if we get a hundred nuisance birds, even if some sparrow gets the poison too. It’s an ongoing fight.”

Dr. Val Beasley, veterinary biosciences professor, agreed about the difficulty of the issue, but expressed that alternative, non-toxic methods of bird management should be more actively sought out.

“It’s a complex issue with a number of concerns – one being public health and whether the feces of the birds . can create respiration infections that can become serious in animals,” Beasley said. “At the same time I’m not crazy about something that causes birds to seizure and die over a period of minutes or hours or days depending on what is used.”

He recommended encouraging natural predators into the area to possibly frighten off some of the flocks.

“Somebody needs to continue the search for better ways to control these birds,” he said.

M”ller advised that any person who finds a dead or dying bird should place it in an airtight plastic bag and either dispose of it or notify University of Illinois Facilities & Services.