ProMED-mail is a mailing list from the International Society of Infectious Diseases. The mailing list is devoted to reporting potential infectious diseases as they emerge. The last fish die-off was just picked up by their mailing list. Here are a few of their comments in response to the Standard article:
A heavy flood can wash soil, sediment, and a variety of chemicals,
plant life, animal waste, etc. into a water drainage area, such as the
river. While agricultural chemicals may be involved it seems extremely
early to be making such comments.
...
A full necropsy of the fish, and appropriate testing should help us
understand what is happening here. However, unless the dead fish are
cleaned up, they will soon be a perfect medium for the growth of
bacteria that can produce botulism. Then when other animals, such as
birds consume the dead fish or the maggots infecting the dead fish,
then they will be poisoned by botulism and we will be hearing about a
host of dead birds in the same area.
See their full post on it here.
A heavy flood can wash soil, sediment, and a variety of chemicals,
plant life, animal waste, etc. into a water drainage area, such as the
river. While agricultural chemicals may be involved it seems extremely
early to be making such comments.
...
A full necropsy of the fish, and appropriate testing should help us
understand what is happening here. However, unless the dead fish are
cleaned up, they will soon be a perfect medium for the growth of
bacteria that can produce botulism. Then when other animals, such as
birds consume the dead fish or the maggots infecting the dead fish,
then they will be poisoned by botulism and we will be hearing about a
host of dead birds in the same area.
See their full post on it here.
