A MYSTERIOUS neurological syndrome is paralysing and killing Perth’s magpies as researchers scramble to pinpoint the cause.
Magpies admitted to WA Wildlife are presenting with mild to severe paralysis, and those in the late stages often suffer from respiratory failure.
The disease is also affecting ravens, butcher birds and mudlarks, but WA Wildlife says if they’re admitted into care early, they can be treated.
WA Wildlife Hospital manager Meg Rodgers says the spike in admissions has wildlife experts “extremely concerned”.
“The same thing has been observed in magpies and other species for about seven years seasonally over the spring and summer period, but this year we’ve seen a huge spike in numbers,” Ms Rodgers said.
“The WA Wildlife Hospital has admitted over 800 magpies since the start of spring, and between 60 and 80 per cent of them have been affected by this condition.
“However, almost 100 per cent of our admissions of magpies over the last couple of months have been with this paralysis syndrome.”
• Sick magpies are coming into WA Wildlife’s hospital in droves. Photo courtesy WA Wildlife
WA Wildlife say they have been working closely with researchers from Murdoch University, Wildlife Health Australia, and DPIRD.
“We’ve done a bit of ad hoc testing, and we’ve ruled out some infectious diseases that we’re a bit concerned about like avian influenza which is obviously a topic of concern at the moment, but we’re still not sure exactly what’s causing it,” Ms Rodgers said.
“The next thing we’re looking at doing is some toxicology screening and what we call next-gen sequencing, which tries to work out if there are any new pathogens that might be affecting the birds, but at this stage, we still don’t know.
Pesticides and botulism have been ruled out.
Murdoch University’s Harry Butler Institute scientist Bethany Jackson said in a paper a comprehensive diagnosis would be “complex”.
“Although preliminary investigations have been conducted, and some potential causes examined, more information is needed for a specific cause to be determined,” Dr Jackson said.
“[The Institute is] providing expertise from the microscopic level of wildlife health, examining cells and tissues of affected animals or performing tests with our diagnostics teams to get some clues as to what is happening.”
by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER