Mystery Chicken deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj (Marshall Islands)

[Laidback Al]

Mystery deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj [Kwajalein] July 22, 2011

Mass deaths of chickens on Carlson Island have health and environment officials scratching their heads as to the cause.
The sudden and unexplained deaths of at least 85 chickens has sparked a flurry of communication among RMI government officials that led to a Ministry of Health/RMI EPA visit to the island on Monday this week.
Ebeye Hospital?s Dr. Tom Jack and EPA?s Ebeye Chief Environmental Specialist Odrikawa Jatios went to investigate the problem at Enibooj (Carlson) Island, which is located about three miles north of Kwajalein
Island on the western side of the atoll across the lagoon from Ebeye (see map above).

?More than 85 chickens and ducks were found dead and buried on the island of Enibooj from July 1 to 18,? they reported Wednesday.
Samples of the dead bird carcasses were taken for laboratory testing.
?No person was sick during this period of time and no other animals were sick besides chickens and ducks,? said Jack?s and Jatios? report. ?It is not clear what causes the death of the chickens on Enibooj.? The problem appears to have subsided.

http://www.marshallislandsjournal.co...tory-page.html

[Laidback Al]

Re: Mystery Chicken deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj (Marshall Islands)

Investigation into mystery bird deaths in the Marshall Islands
5:01 pm GMT+12, 21/07/2011, Marshall Islands

Health and environment officials in the Marshall Islands are mystified at the widespread deaths of chickens and ducks on a small island next to the U.S. Army?s missile testing range.

The sudden and unexplained deaths of nearly 100 chickens and ducks on Enibooj Island - which has a population of under 200 people living a largely subsistence lifestyle - sparked an investigation earlier this week.
Samples of the dead bird carcasses have been taken for laboratory testing.

Kwajalein Senator Tony deBrum sought an investigation, saying that dead chickens in a small community should be a matter for emergency health concerns.

The island is located about five kilometres from the headquarters island of the Reagan Test Site, a major missile testing facility operated by the U.S. Army.

Health and environment officials have asked the Marshall Islands Quarantine Department and the Army?s Animal Hospital Laboratory to assess what caused the deaths.

http://www.pina.com.fj/?p=pacnews&m=...9e88c177ae7db2

[Laidback Al]

Re: Mystery Chicken deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj (Marshall Islands)

Micronesia: mass chicken deaths

Posted on July 26, 2011 by niarane
The mass death of chickens and ducks on a small island next to the US Army?s missile testing range in the Marshall Islands is perplexing health and environment officials. The sudden and unexplained deaths of nearly 100 chickens on Enibooj Island ? which has a population of less than 200 people living a largely subsistence lifestyle ? sparked an investigation earlier this week by Ministry of Health and Marshall Islands Environmental Protection Authority [EPA] officials. ?More than 85 chickens and ducks were found dead and buried on the island of Enibooj from 1 Jul to 18 Jul 2011,? reported Ebeye Hospital?s Dr Tom Jack and EPA?s Ebeye chief environmental specialist Odrikawa Jatios on Wednesday ? 20 Jul 2011 ? after touring the island that US cartographers refer to as Carlson.
Samples of the dead bird carcasses were taken for laboratory testing. Kwajalein [Atoll] senator Tony deBrum sought an investigation of the apparent outbreak of disease among fowls on the island late last week, saying ?dead chickens in a small community should be a matter of emergency health concerns.? The island is located about 3 miles away from the headquarters island of the Reagan Test Site, a major missile testing facility operated by the US Army. ?No person was sick during this period of time and no other animals were sick besides chickens and ducks,? said Jack and Jatios. ?It is not clear what caused the death of the chickens on Enibooj.? The problem appears to have subsided, they said.
They have asked the Marshall Islands Quarantine Department and the Army?s Animal Hospital Laboratory to assess what caused the outbreak. People on the island said the unknown sickness hit the fowls without warning earlier this month [July 2011]. The birds? eyelids swelled up, some flipped upside down with legs in the air and died, while others died of dehydration even though water was available for the animals. Mostly young chickens ? from 2 months to a year old ? died in the outbreak.
Enibooj islanders say no commercial feed was used for the chickens and no pesticides are in use on the island. ?All interviewees said other animals like pigs and dogs are drinking from the same water source but were never sick (and didn?t) die,? Jatios said. Dr Jack advised residents not to eat island chickens until further notice and showed how to properly dispose of them. He also advised against sending chickens to Ebeye, the urban center on Kwajalein Atoll that has a population of about 12 000. The 2 investigators said they witnessed one chicken in the process of dying from the mystery illness while on the island. ?The chicken?s eyelids were swelling and it couldn?t walk,? the report said. ?The chicken will sit for almost 2 days and then it dies.?
(I have not been able to find another article on this story.-cottontop)
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php


http://cottontopssandbox.wordpress.c...hicken-deaths/

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Mystery Chicken deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj (Marshall Islands)

US Army rules out bird flu chicken deaths By Online Editor
10:22 am GMT+12, 16/08/2011, Marshall Islands
Carlson Island Avian flu and Newcastle Disease did not cause the death of nearly 100 chickens on a small island next to the U.S. Army?s Kwajalein missile testing range in the Marshall Islands.

But the cause of the illness outbreak that killed most of the chickens and ducks on Carlson Island during July has not yet been determined. This is alarming local leaders.

?A hundred chickens rolling over dead on the island next to Kwajalein is a serious matter,? said Kwajalein Sen. Tony deBrum. ?And we continue to be seriously concerned about public health threats to the community there as well as to the rest of the Kwajalein Atoll population.?

?Our medical personnel have received results back from the testing of specimens taken on Carlson Island,? said U.S. Army Maj. Christopher D. Mills. The Army took samples of the dead birds from Carlson for laboratory testing at the request of the Marshall Islands government. ?Results provided have ruled out Avian Influenza and Newcastle?s Disease,? Mills said.

The Newcastle disease virus does not pose significant hazards to human health, but strains of Avian flu have proved deadly for humans.

A Ministry of Health and Environmental Protection Authority team first visited the island last month in response to reports of the outbreak. They reported that no other animals such as dogs and cats were affected by whatever killed the fowls.

DeBrum thanked the ?military for telling us that Newcastle and Avian flu are not the culprits.?

But deBrum wants follow up with the Army to get a determination of what did cause the outbreak of illness in July.

The big question of what caused the bird deaths has ?been hanging over our collective heads for more than a month,? deBrum said. ?But it should not be dropped here.?

He urged the Marshall Islands government to bring in experts from Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program (SPREP) and Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) ?to see if we can get to the bottom of this mystery.? .

SOURCE: MARIANAS VARIETY/PACNEWS

http://www.pina.com.fj/?p=pacnews&m=...0942d0a82c0255

[Giuseppe]

Re: Mystery Chicken deaths hit Enibooj isle in Kwaj (Marshall Islands)

Bird flu viruses are now easily spotted through RT-PCR even in the field labs, so I think should not be hard for Pacific Island States to find a way to reassure farmers about mass poultry die-off.

If bird flu viruses (not only H5N1, as suggested by one of the above pieces of news, but even H7 or H9) were ruled out, another emerging virus has been detected both in southern China and Thailand. See the Emerg Infect Dis. abstract at http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=171826