Thousands of mallards dying

A lot of people have said, "What if you're wrong? What if all that manure being spread on the ground in the heart of an International Migratory Bird Flyway really doesn't hurt those birds at all?"

Frankly, I'm hoping I really AM WRONG. I'm praying that I am wrong.

In fact, I hope it isn't CAFO manure that caused the death of thousands of mallard ducks reported this month (Dec. 14/2006) in Idaho. QUOTE:

"Wildlife officials are calling the massive die-off alarming, with the number of dead mallards rising from 1,000 Tuesday to more than 2,000 by Wednesday afternoon." (link)

As I read the news article, this quote caught my eye:

"Preliminary findings by state veterinarians suggest the mallards succumbed to a bacterial infection, officials said. They said it was unclear why a similar outbreak had never before occurred in Idaho."

The U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center stated that the only mallard die-off roughly equivalent in recent years happened in Waterloo, Iowa in 2005, when 500 ducks died from a fungus.

Now, I know researchers will NOT implicate livestock manure in any way... I've noticed a trend where vetrinary scientists always do their best to NOT implicate livestock operations in most research of this nature. Hey, it's just my observations -- not fact. Who knows, maybe there are studies that prove otherwise.

But what I am saying, have said repeatedly, you can't keep dumping more and more tons of pathogen-laden manure on more and more and more ground throughout the USA and not expect something to happen -- sooner or later.