Paducah birds hazard still

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 7

Paducah birds hazard still

(N Z. Press Assn—Copyripht) PADUCAH (Kentucky), February 17. Nearly 200,000 birds lay I dead, but a mass-exter- ! mination project has done ; little to eliminate the esti- : mated 1.5 million blackbirds {that Paducah city officials; say present a health hazard | because of the diseases they; carry. i “There’s still an unbelie- I , vable number of birds' about,” said the city man-; ager, Mr William Howerton, ; said yesterday. “It doesn’t { Took as though we’ve made ; a dent in their number.” A light aircraft flying at; tree-top level on Saturday I night spraved the birds with; 800 gallons of the soapy chemical, tergitol, which re- , moved the protective oil ' from the birds’ feathers, {causing thousands to die from exposure to freezing rain. Despite the limited success in Paducah, United States Army officials at Fort Campbell, 80 miles away, are still considering a similar attack on millions of birds roosting on their military reservation; but the Pentagon wants to be sure j that tergitol is not hazardous to humans. ! Millions of blackbirds 1 roost on the military reservation at night, and at daylight fan out over the sur- { rounding countryside, play- ! ing havoc with farming land 'and gardens. Doctors say bird-droppmgs 1 cause a disease known as histoplasmosis, which attacks the respiratory system and in some cases can cause I blindness. <