Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

[alert]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/06/birds-dying-in-italy-thou_n_805541.html

link to original source:

http://www.geapress.org/ambiente/faenza-la-pioggia-delle-tortore-morte-si-colora-di-blu/10343


On Wednesday, GeaPress reported hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of dead and dying birds in Italy. Countless turtle doves were found scattered in the streets, in flower beds and hanging tragically from trees "like Christmas balls" in the town of Faenza. Many of the birds that fell dead from the sky were discovered with a mysterious blue stain in their beaks.

In the past week, similar incidents of mass animal deaths have been reported across the world. Thousands of dead birds fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve, and similar incidents were reported on different days in Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden. Two million fish were discovered dead in Maryland, with other fish kills also reported in Brazil, New Zealand and Arkansas -- approximately 100 miles from the bird incident. 40,000 crabs washed up on England beaches in the past few days, as well.

more....

 

[hawkeye]

Re: Birds fall out of sky in Faenza, Italy

Re: Birds fall out of sky in Faenza, Italy

Furmented berries?

 

[Pathfinder]

Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Italy in latest bizarre mass animal deaths

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By Mirror.co.uk 7/01/2011

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Excerpt:

The bodies of the birds, with a mysterious blue tinge to their beaks, crashed down on roofs of homes and cars in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1lace>Faenza</st1lace></st1:City>, near <st1:City><st1lace>Ravenna</st1lace></st1:City> in northern <st1:country-region><st1lace>Italy</st1lace></st1:country-region>.

For the last five days wildlife experts and officers from the forestry commission have picked up more than 1,000 turtle doves as well as other birds including pigeons.

Today alone 300 corpses were recovered with all of them having a blue tinge to their beaks which scientists say indicates poisoning or hypoxia...


Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-...-animal-deaths-115875-22832765/#ixzz1AMvob9yz

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens after 8,000 turtle doves fall dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks

By Wil Longbottom
Last updated at 3:45 PM on 7th January 2011

Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.

Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like 'little Christmas balls' with strange blue stains on their beaks.

Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

Mystery: 8,000 turtle doves fell to the ground dead in Faenza, Italy, and were found to have a blue stain around their beaks

Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-Two-MILLION-dead-fish-wash-Maryland-bay.html

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

Hundreds of birds found dead in northern Italy

January 08, 2011 11:16 EST

Excerpt:

Scientists were carrying out tests to figure out why the birds died but Nadia Caselli of the bird association said they appear to have overeaten sunflower seeds, which damage their livers and kidneys. The seeds are mostly waste from a nearby oil factory.

Full text:
http://www.wgme.com/template/inews_wire/wires.international/2ddaaca9-www.wgme.com.shtml

 

[tetano]

Re: Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

Turtle also died in Modena

Another death of doves, after the one in Ravenna, this time took place in San Cesario (Modena). A man residing in via Borgo Predio fact found 12 dead birds in the garden. It is the third consecutive day that John Sereni carcasses of dead birds: Friday was noted, under a tree in his garden, some doves lifeless and had not given too much weight to the fact. But the phenomenon was repeated on Saturday, with 15 dead birds.

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/11_...te_94d13d6a-1c26-11e0-9ee8-00144f02aabc.shtml

 

[tetano]

Re: Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

turtle die-off, not due to influenza A virus

Reuters - RAVENNA, 12 GEN - Tests on samples from carcasses of dead turtles in large quantities from the beginning of the year at Faenza in Ravenna, have ruled out the presence of influenza viruses type A and also the bacteriological tests were negative. This was announced by the Province of Ravenna indicating that these early tests have been performed by the section of Lugo and Forli Zooprofilattico Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, after taking 2 to 4 January of dead birds collected in different sites of territory concerned. The Province that is immediately effective in coordination with the Municipality of Faenza, the State Forestry and Ausl also announced that tests confirmed the presence of large quantities of sunflower seeds in the crop and signs of suffering their liver and kidneys, requiring the study of microbiological tests, virological, histological and chemical toxicology, already in progress. It was found the presence of avian paramyxovirus, a virus that is safe for humans. To find out if his presence can be the cause or contributory cause of death of the animals must wait for the definition of the index of pathogenicity of which is researching the Istituto Zooprofilattico di Padova. Are still ongoing testing for the presence of contaminants, toxic and antinutritional factors required by the Ravenna Local Health on the samples of food that were available to the doves death. Meanwhile, the province has taken steps to enable the disposal of carcasses, so far gathered by voluntary workers and be delivered to the Provincial Police that the same Ausl, for a total of 310 kg.

http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/cana...011/01/12/visualizza_new.html_1641258923.html

 

[Emily]

Re: Italy - Thousands of turtle doves drop dead from the sky in Faenza

It was found the presence of avian paramyxovirus, a virus that is safe for humans.

One recent infection in a human:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2168997/

J Virol. 2007 November; 81(22): 12709?12714.
Published online 2007 September 12. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01406-07.

PMCID: PMC2168997
Copyright 2007, American Society for Microbiology
Isolation of Avian Paramyxovirus 1 from a Patient with a Lethal Case of Pneumonia
[snip]
This is the most completely documented case of a systemic human infection caused by APMV-1 and is the first report of an association between this virus and a fatal disease in a human....