Bird Deaths Shut down large swath of Downtown Austin - Cause Scare

[Mopacs]

This is an ongoing story. Officials don't seem overly concerned, but are taking all precautions. Much of downtown Austin's primary office/financial district is shut down, including all office towers along and one block on either side of Congress Avenue (from 1st to 11th streets). There is live coverage on national cable news networks. Hopefully this turns out to be nothing.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/08/aus....ap/index.html
http://keyetv.com/topstories/local_story_008080531.html

Discovery Of Dead Birds Shuts Down Congress Avenue

Area workers advised to stay home until further notice.

Bettie Cross
Reporting

(CBS 42) AUSTIN Austin police have shut down Congress Ave. from Cesar Chavez St. to 11th St. after finding between 40 and 60 dead birds around 3 a.m. along Congress Ave. between 6th and 8th Streets.

The top health official for Austin and Travis County says there's no evidence of any public health threat from an overnight bird kill that prompted police to seal off the heart of downtown Austin today.

Adolfo Valadez is medical director for Austin and Travis County Health and Human Services. He says air-quality testing found no chemicals, and he expects the closed sections of downtown to reopen at noon.

But he says some of the 40 to 60 dead birds will be sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and Texas A & M University for further testing. Valadez says the tests will look for signs of poisoning or viral infections -- although he discounted the possibility of "bird flu" as a factor. Most of the dead birds were grackles, though pigeons and sparrows were also found dead.

No people were harmed, but a 10-block stretch of Congress Ave., several side streets and all buildings in the area are blocked off and expected to remain off-limits until about noon, police spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz said.

People that work in that area have been advised not to come in until further notice.

The Capitol remains open with the Legislature scheduled to open its regular session tomorrow.

Federal Homeland Security officials in Washington say they have "no credible intelligence" to suggest any imminent threat to the homeland or to Austin.

We will update our Web site with new information as it becomes available.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc

[WTx]

[Mopacs]

All is well again in downtown austin.... was just a scare. Almost ever office building on Congress was inaccessible during the morning and early afternoon hours.

http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=5904817


Congress Avenue Re-Opens Following Bird Deaths

Austin police have re-opened a 10-block stretch of Congress Avenue, hours after 63 dead birds were found in Downtown Austin.
A few of those birds were found alive and had awkward movements and the inability to fly.

Authorities said Monday that the birds don't pose a threat to public health.

"At this time, based on that preliminary evidence, we do not feel that there's a threat to the public health, but we do want to take every precaution necessary to ensure the public's safety," said Dr. Adolfo Valadez with Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services.
Congress Avenue and one block on either side of the street were shut down from Cesar Chavez to 11th Street. Most of the birds were concentrated around 9th Street.

They still don't know what killed the birds. However, one bird has been sent to a lab in Ames, Iowa, to be tested for avian flu. Another bird is being sent to College Station, Texas, to determine whether it might have been poisoned. That said, KXAN has been told that officials don't believe that a bird flu was the likely cause of this incident Monday morning.

"Typically what we see in large bird die-offs is severe weather, actually -- strong winds, hail storms," Valadez said. "Obviously, poisoning can be a cause of that, deliberate poisoning from people finding birds a nuisance. And then other times, birds, just like people, can become ill and get certain diseases that can cause them to die. West Nile virus is probably the most common cause."

Valadez said there were 63 dead birds found. The dead birds included grackles, pigeons and sparrows.

"The preliminary test that were done include a gas chromatography of the exterior of the bird, looking for organo-phosphates or pesticides. That can also cause illness in humans. We also did necropsy or dissection of birds looking for further evidence of poisoning from that respect. Those were all preliminary results but negative," Valadez said.

The fire department was called out to the area around 3 a.m. on Monday to test if there had been a gas or chlorine leak, but nothing of that nature was found.

Several different groups are on the scene, including APD, AFD and the 6th Civil Support Team. That team supports local first-responders and helps determine the nature of an emergency situation.
Officials say anyone who may find dead birds in their area can call 311 to make a report.

[alon504]

I was traveling from Illinois to New Orleans today on I-55 and they kept mentioning this story on the news as I listened to the radio. What caused these bird deaths? The notion was mentioned that they were poisoned. Is this true?

[jaga185]

I'm actually very interested in this story, I very anxious to see what the result is.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by alon504

I was traveling from Illinois to New Orleans today on I-55 and they kept mentioning this story on the news as I listened to the radio. What caused these bird deaths? The notion was mentioned that they were poisoned. Is this true?

I am amazed at the national coverage of this event. Fox News Channel carried press conference(s) live, and I am told that even WWL-AM in New Orleans provided updates throughout the day. With all the scares over SARS and similar epidemics, I can understand the concern.

Update/Summary from Austin American-Statesman:

http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...deadbirds.html

Bird kill proves costly

Businesses suffer when cleanup shuts Congress Avenue.

By Shonda Novak, Joshunda Sanders, Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, January 09, 2007

The discovery of dozens of mysteriously dead birds shut down Congress Avenue on Monday morning, closing dozens of businesses for hours and keeping hundreds of workers away from their jobs in part of the city's most important commercial center.

Authorities said Monday afternoon that they suspect the birds, first discovered dotting the street and sidewalks about 3 a.m., might have been poisoned. They ruled out any threat to public safety.

By dawn, however, emergency workers had closed Congress Avenue from Cesar Chavez to 11th streets, sealing off the area to workers as they tried to figure out how the more than 60 grackles, pigeons and sparrows had died.

Law firm employees were forced to work from home. One advertising agency owner turned her Tarrytown house into a makeshift office. Parking lots were empty.

For some businesses, the financial hit was substantial.
Mike Cuellar, a manager at McCormick & Schmick's, said the upscale seafood restaurant in the Frost Bank Tower was closed at lunch, losing thousands of dollars in sales.

The restaurant called employees early Monday to tell them not to show up for work. It reopened for dinner at 4 p.m.
Seattle's Best Coffee in the Frost Bank lobby, normally crowded with office workers, was closed all day.

However, Taco Shack, which also is in the Frost Bank Tower with an entrance on Brazos Street, opened as usual at 6:30 a.m.
"They were a haven for a lot of people," Cuellar said.
Adolfo Valadez, medical director of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Division, said that biological samples from the birds would be sent to laboratories at Texas A&M University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and that final lab results could be available within a week.

He ruled out any threat to public safety, including fears of West Nile virus or avian influenza.

National spotlight

The incident attracted national attention — CNN showed footage of the city, and National Public Radio led a newscast with it — and prompted speculation on the Internet about what might have killed the birds.

"I am totally thinking/obsessing about this today!" one poster wrote on etsy.com, a site that sells homemade goods. "There has got to be a reason those birds are dead. Some kind of air poison in the sky; chemical warfare; WHAT?! Does anyone else find this completely scary?"

The incident also caused a spike in reports of dead bird sightings, police said. Valadez asked that people call 311 to report dead birds in their neighborhoods or on their lawns. Valadez said tests will determine whether the Congress Avenue birds were poisoned.

"Such bird die-offs are fairly common," he said. "I think we tend to lose sight of that, living in an urban environment."
Valerie Staats, executive director of the Travis Audubon Society, said the variety of the dead birds "suggests some kind of poison, either purposeful or accidental."

Birds such as pigeons and great-tailed grackles have thrived with urban growth, Staats said. "They have adapted brilliantly, and they're not impeded by our constant building and development."

It is legal to poison rock doves (a type of pigeon found commonly in the Austin area), grackles and some sparrows, said Jack Ralph, head of the kills and spills team at the state Parks and Wildlife Department.
"But if you target those species for control, you'd better darn well target that species and harm nothing else."

One day before the start of the state's 80th legislative session at the Capitol, streets adjacent to Congress Avenue were full of befuddled drivers and frustrated workers during the morning and noon rush hours. The street was reopened about 12:30 p.m.

Little City Espresso Bar and Cafe at Congress and Ninth Street didn't open until 2 p.m., losing key morning and lunch sales that represent the bulk of its daily revenue, employee Heather Coffey said.
Little City typically brings in $500 to $600 in morning sales and $600 to $1,000 during its lunch run.

"They carry us through the whole day," Coffey said. "We're just hoping the rest of the week is good."

Two blocks south, at the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel, guests were able to leave Monday morning but were unable to return until 12:45 p.m., executive assistant Jolanda Magana said.
As about 30 or so morning shift employees began showing up between 7 and 8 a.m. Monday, three managers stood on a street corner, directing them to a meeting room at the nearby Omni Hotel, where they waited until they could get to work.

The Roaring Fork restaurant in the hotel, which faces Congress, was closed for lunch but opened in time for dinner.


Working from home


McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore at 600 Congress shut down until about 12:30 p.m., when it started notifying its approximately 110 employees to "come on down," said Tim George, the Austin-based law firm's managing partner.
The firm started notifying employees about 7 a.m. with phone calls and e-mails. The firm has a phone number with a recorded message for employees in the event of emergencies.
"We decided to shut the office until the middle of the day, asking people to work from home, rather than try to swim upstream on this," partner Pat Lochridge said. "By and large, what with everyone having a computer at home, you can get an amazing amount of work done."
George said the firm updated its phone message two or three times before giving the all-clear.

While the office was closed, George said, the support staff picked up phone messages and forwarded them to employees.
Yvonne Tocquigny, founder of a namesake advertising agency, turned her Tarrytown home into an improvised office for several hours when employees couldn't get into the Frost Bank building.

"We've got a guy in my living room doing a client presentation on a conference call," Tocquigny said Monday morning. "Our business director brought his baby over. And we have a new business presentation happening in my dining room."

Springbox, an advertising agency at 706 Congress, had to shut down its offices until 12:30 p.m.

"I got a call at 7 a.m. and was told not to come into work," said Becky Fabre, a spokeswoman for Springbox.
"It's just like we got a snow day in Texas," Fabre added.

Additional material from staff writers Robert Elder, Lilly Rockwell and Asher Price.

Recent kills

At least two other incidents involving a large quantity of dead birds have taken place in urban areas since the summer:
•September: Pigeons began nose-diving and dying on downtown Texarkana sidewalks, marring a festival. The birds had eaten poisoned corn from the roof of a nearby bank.
•July: Emergency workers in Schenectady, N.Y., spent hours collecting dead birds after pesticide was used to get rid of pigeons on a hospital roof; the emergency room had to be closed.

[Mopacs]

Accompanying photo from article.... like a scene out of the movie Outbreak


Brian K. Diggs
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
More than 60 dead grackles, pigeons and sparrows were found along Congress Avenue on Monday, prompting authorities to close the busy street and keeping workers and customers away.

[KevinFromTexas]

Birds give me the creeps sometimes like this. Back in December I was downtown taking pictures, (under a tree), when one pooped on my arm.

I remember a couple of years ago there were a few bird deaths going around in Austin. Several turned up dead in my yard infact.

[KevinFromTexas]

Update on the dead birds scare in downtown. Apparently the birds were just sick with a parasite common in birds which killed them.

From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...deadbirds.html

Birds died natural death
Parasites, temperature drop blamed

By Miguel Liscano, Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Friday, January 19, 2007

The deaths of dozens of birds in downtown Austin earlier this month were caused by parasites and a drop in temperature, animal health experts said Thursday.

Avian pathologists at Texas A&M University examined nine of the birds and concluded they died of natural causes.

When the 63 birds were found Jan. 8, it caused a minor panic — Congress Avenue was closed, dozens of businesses were shuttered, and the mystery became national news.

"We did not find any evidence that there was a public health problem, either from a poison or from an infectious disease," said Dr. Lelve Gayle, the executive director of the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory.

"These birds were heavily parasitized by multiple species of parasites," Gayle said. "These birds were sick."

Officials had suspected poisoning, and their investigation continues. City Manager Toby Futrell, briefed on the A&M results, saidhealth officials were awaiting test results from other agencies before announcing the cause of death.

"There is no reason to believe the A&M results are not going to be right," she said. "The bottom line is that they have a negative test for poison."

Futrell said she did not know when the other test results would be complete. City health officials would not comment Thursday night.

Gayle said a sudden temperature drop from the 50s to the 40s contributed to the birds dying at about the same time.

There was no indication the birds were poisoned.

"Normally when you have birds that have been poisoned, you find food in their stomachs," Gayle said. "And we found no food in their stomachs."

[Mopacs]

Interesting findings... that makes sense. Very strange nevertheless. It sure caused quite a scare!

[M1EK]

No, it doesn't make sense; as Pink Dome points out, we just had a much worse temperature drop, and no sudden avalanche of dead birds.

I think TAMU just picked an explanation they thought would fly because they just had no idea.

[Mopacs]

Originally Posted by M1EK

No, it doesn't make sense; as Pink Dome points out, we just had a much worse temperature drop, and no sudden avalanche of dead birds.

I think TAMU just picked an explanation they thought would fly because they just had no idea.

Someday we'll know... As one guy commented, "aggie avian pathologists - 'nuff said"

[KevinFromTexas]

I can believe the parasite bit, but temperature drop? I thought that was strange as well. We've had temperature drops much more intense than that. I remember as this storm blew through I watched the weather for Abilene, it was 67F there at noon but by 3 pm it was 38F.

[Boquillas]

I think it makes perfect sense. Birds are endothermic, but they are unique in that they practice a kind of homeothermy called "non-shivering thermogenesis" wherein special brown fat cells produce warmth to keep muscle tissue and organs at a certain temperature. They also rely on insulation in the form of feathers for temperature regulation. If these birds were affected by a parasite that reduced their ability to thermoregulate, i.e., destroyed or consumed adipose tissue (fat cells), they were especially vulnerable to a temperature drop they normally might have handled. The parasites themselves weren't the culprit, but in combination with the cold weather, the birds couldn't survive. Of course, this pretty much wiped out the local parasite population in the process, which is why another temp. drop did not equal more bird deaths. In case you were wondering, almost all birds have the ability to survive very low temperatures for extended periods (it is very cold up in the sky, exposed). It is mostly the availability of food/suitable habitat that is the reason for seasonal avian migration.
There are people that study birds for a living, and know a lot more than we do about the delicacy of avian metabolic function, and we should think twice before automatically assuming that these scientists were jumping to the first conclusion they could come up with.

[M1EK]

Key point from previous poster: We've had temperature drops much more intense than that. including BEFORE this bird kill's supposed trigger. Again, I'm getting the strong sense of pulloutofassitis.