Ducks killed by botulism

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32563, 24 March 1971, Page 1

Ducks killed by botulism

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 23. The rare disease that has killed hundreds of Auckland ducks this summer has been isolated as an animal strain, and therefore is unlikely to cause human food poisoning.

Ruakura animal scientists have analysed the strain of the disease known as botulism as type C. The types dangerous to humans are A, B and F. But Mr D. O. Cordes, superintendent of the Ruakura Animal Health Laboratory, said: “It is a very potent toxin.”

He said it would be advisable to be wary of the disease. Type C, although usually a strain confined to animals, had been found in humans.

Mr Cordes said that the danger of people contracting the disease from ducks shot in the coming hunting season was remote. The disease struck quickly, paralysing the nervous system and usually killing the duck within three days. Botulism affected the duck’s feet, wings and neck first, and for this reason, an

infected duck was unlikely to be able to fly. If a shooter was unlucky enough to bring down an infected duck, then cooking would probably destroy the dangerous bacteria, Mr Cordes said.

The disease has killed ducks at the North Shore Drainage Board oxidation ponds and at the Auckland Zoo. It is believed that up to 700 ducks have died in the oxidation ponds at Albany alone. The Auckland medical officer of Health (Dr N. T. Barnett) echoed Mr Cordes’s advice to keep away from any suspected bird. Dr Barnett said: “I would not like to eat them myself.” The strains of botulism dangerous to humans are generally picked up from bad bottles of fruit and vegetables and faulty tinned food. More than 50 per cent of the cases from this rare type of food poisoning are fatal. Because the disease is a poisoning by bacterial toxins rather than infection, antibiotics are useless against it.