We have been pondering on the significance of the laboratory evidence from Bee Researchers in France and the US that the administration of tiny amounts of a systemic neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, to bees was associated with a weakening of bee immunity, such that they became more susceptible to bee diseases. and decided to look more closely at the patterns of recent deaths/epidemics in the UK, Europe and the US, involving a variety of other wildlife. In the UK, reports of chaffinches Fringilla coelebs appearing in gardens with white, crusty growths on their legs and feet caused by a papilloma virus began in 2005; the mortality is said to be about 20%, so the disease kills more slowly than with the greenfinch (Carduelis chloris) Trichomonas infections [1].
In 2004, two dead chaffinches were found in Europe, one of which was suffering from two diseases. In the Czech journal, pathologists reported one as having a co-infection between papilloma virus (which was also affecting the beak) and K. jamaicenis, a mite [2]. They also commented that “beak papillomatosis is rare in wild birds”.
References:
[1] Robinson, R.A., Lawson, B., Toms, M.P. et al. 2010 Emerging Infectious Diseases Leads to Rapid Population Decline of Common British Birds. PLoS one 5: e12215.
[2] Literak, I., Smid, B., Dusbabek, F., Halouzka R., Novotny, L. (2005) Co-infection with papillomavirus and Knemidokotes jamaicensis (Acari: knemidokoptidae) in a chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and a case of beak papillomatosis in another chaffinch. Vet.Med.-Czech 50: 276-280.
Authors:
Dr Rosemary Mason, MB, ChB (Hons), D.Obst. RCOG, FRCA.
She worked in the UK National Health Service for about 35 years in: General Hospital Medicine and Obstetrics 3 years; Training in Anaesthetics and Intensive Care 8 years; Consultant Anaesthetist (Anesthesiologist) 25 years.
Author of Anaesthesia Databook; A perioperative and peripartum manual (600 pages) as a practical resource for trained anaesthetists. 1st edn. 1989, 2nd edn. 1994, 3rd edn. 2001; reprinted in 2009.
Assistant Editor of Anaesthesia, Journal of the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1990 – 2000.
Palle Uhd Jepsen, former Senior Adviser in Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation for the Danish Forest and Nature Agency, Ministry of the Environment. Research on the feeding ecology of goldeneye. Before his retirement he was a member of the Danish Delegation on the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, International Whaling Commission, Bonn Convention on Migratory Species, ASCOBANS (Agreement on Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic and North Sea) and Wetlands International. Adviser on Site Management for International Projects in Thailand, Malaysia, Belarus, Northern Ireland and Estonia.
Author of several books on natural and cultural history in Denmark; also natural history in the Arctic.
27th May 2011
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