Avian Cholea Threatens Arctic Northern Canadian Gamebirds
Canadian scientists say they fear avian cholera could put the future of some eider duck colonies in the Arctic in jeopardy.
Avian cholera is a potent bacteria-based disease that has affected common eider duck colonies in southern Nunavut and in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec in the last few years.
“It is having devastating impacts on some of the largest colonies in the Canadian Arctic,” said Grant Gilchrist, a research scientist with the National Wildlife Research Centre in Ottawa.
While avian cholera is highly contagious among waterfowl and other bird species, it cannot be passed on to humans.
The disease has mainly hit colonies in the Hudson Strait and northern Hudson Bay. The East Bay Migratory Bird Sanctuary on Southampton Island has been particularly hard hit, as more than 4,000 common eider ducks were found dead there over the past few years.
Gilchrist said almost 1,500 eider ducks were found dead on the island this year alone. That number accounts for about 33 per cent of all breeding females that nest there, he added.
“It is targetting the breeding population of birds, which are typically long-lived,” he said. “It’s having detectable declining impacts on the populations during the summertime.”
Gilchrist said scientists are in contact with local hunters and trappers’ organizations in several communities, hoping that hunters will report observations on where avian cholera is having an impact.
Speaking in Inuktitut, Susie Angutialluk, a member of Coral Harbour’s hunters and trappers association, told CBC News that people were alarmed when they first encountered a number of dead eider ducks.
Now, they’re looking at it as a natural occurrence, Angutialluk said.
The good news, Gilchrist said, is that avian cholera has not spread north into Cumberland Sound, nor has it spread to the eider ducks’ wintering areas in Greenland.
Still, scientists are concerned with the possibility of the disease spreading around the circumpolar world given how far eider ducks can migrate. For example, a common eider duck fitted with a band in Nunavut has been found on the eastern coast of Russia.
Gilchrist said a graduate student will visit several northern communities to speak with local elders and find out if they’ve seen other massive duck die-offs from avian cholera in the past.
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