crab plover diet

the discovery of 13 dead or dying chickens near the kauai county building last week

crab plover diet, are prompting a closer look. scientists are trying to rule out

avian influenza---- which is causing problems on the mainland. it could also be an outbreak of botulism which did kill hundreds of ducks on kauai several years ago

kitv4's catherine cruz has the latest developments... every year around this time migratory birds fly into the islands either to wildlife reguges here on oahu or on

kauai. in years past candadian geese have turned up on the north shore. the concern is waterfowl can be carriers of the avian influenza, -

thierry work 200- 2:18 "every season we have plovers. we have smaller populations of pintails and shovelers, mallards but as far the risk for avian influenza,

i think its rather low. work says while our native population of birds isnt at high risk --chickens are. oahu has seen an explosion of chickens in recent

years while kauai has been overrun for decades. - thierry work 2:22- 2:40 - "the water fowl, unlike chickens are not really susceptable to

virus in the clinical sense like gettting sick. they will just be carriers. they will live with the virus. it's the chickens that are susceptable they are very a good

sentinal to detect because they are so susceptable," scientists hope to analyze necropsy results from the kauai chickens this week to determine if they died of bird

flu or botulism. the recent outbreak of avian influenza in the midwest triggered a massive kill of millions of egg laying chickens. and veternarians for the

state agriculture are on guard. - phoner jason moniz 22:57-23:10 "we are on a high alert for avian influenza. botulism is a chronic problem. we see it

every year. we see it in back yard poultry and feral chickens," federal biologists have been on the lookout for avian influenza and have looked at ten thousand birds

across the pacifc and all have come up negative. botulism on the other hand, is another story. - thierry 4: 23 -4:30 "the latest outbreak we had

was in 2010- 2011we had a dieoff of kaloa ducks native we lost 300 ducks," scientists say in the last two weeks they have had reports of a die-off

of ducks near kapaa, as well as chickens in puna on the big island. those necropsys have come up negative for avian tests take longer--and

scientists hope to have kauai's chicken mystery solved. catherine cruz kitv4 news