Dr. Lindsay Oaks, head of the microbiology department of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Washington State University, reported today that the eyass (nestling) peregrines at the Washington Mutual Tower in Seattle had died from a bacterial infection.
Two of the three dead nestlings had been recovered on the nest ledge shortly after their deaths by Denise Kolb and Martin Muller with the cooperation of the building managers, Wright Runstad. The young were then transported to WSU by Chris Anderson of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and WDFW veterinarian, Dr. Kristin Mansfield arranged for the post mortems.
Dr. Oaks states that a mycoplasma bacteria had entered the brain cavities of the birds and that this was the first such record he had observed among peregrines. Their team is currently attempting to identify the bacteria and suspect that it could be an undescribed species. Mycoplasmas are found commonly in the environment.
It is not known specifically how the young contracted the bacteria but it likely was transmitted by the adults.
We want to gratefully acknowledge and thank everyone involved in this cooperative effort to learn what caused the unprecedented deaths of the WAMU peregrine eyasses.
To view the Seattle Times Newspaper article go to the following site:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008038586_peregrine08m.html
