Zoo poisons cafe birds after salmonella find

By ANGELA GREGORY

Sparrows carrying a disease that can kill children and the elderly have been poisoned around the public cafeteria at the Auckland Zoo because of the health risk.

The zoo director, Stephen Standley, has confirmed that about 150 sparrows were destroyed after they were found to be infected with a salmonella bacteria.

The salmonella 160 strain carried by the birds killed a Christchurch man last year, and made others ill.

Mr Standley said the zoo had been concerned about the sparrow population living around the Dr Dolittle's Cafe.

The birds sometimes entered the cafe, leaving droppings on tables.

When some of the sparrows died, autopsies revealed the 160 strain.

In humans, the unusual salmonella strain is rarely fatal, but it can kill children, the elderly, or those with weakened immune systems.

The disease can be spread by bird droppings. Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting.

About a week ago, zoo staff laid poisoned wheat in a cordoned area near the cafe over two nights.

The drug in the bait reduced the birds' body temperatures, putting them into a coma until they died.

Mr Standley said there were no reports from the public of salmonella poisoning, nor any indication that zoo animals had been affected.

The zoo vet, John Potter, said salmonella-carrying sparrows were a threat to the zoo birds because they could get into aviaries.

A kaka died of salmonella poisoning at Wellington Zoo last year.

Mr Potter said quite a few sparrows had died of salmonella in the zoo grounds, which posed an infection risk to carnivores if they ate them off the ground.

Alex Bird, Auckland City Council team leader (environmental health), said sparrows were a problem and cafe owners were asked to keep them out of their premises.

Mr Bird said it was unfortunate that some people thought feeding sparrows was cute, because that only encouraged the birds to hang around.

The public needed reminding that birds were potential disease carriers, and people should wash their hands if they had contact with droppings.

An Auckland public health physician, Dr Greg Simmons, said he knew the 160 strain had been present in Auckland bird populations for some time, but was not aware of the scale of infestation.

There had been no obvious cases of transmission of the disease from birds to humans in the city, he said.

MAF programme coordinator (surveillance) Roger Poland said it was not known how many sparrows were contaminated with salmonella, but investigations last year revealed that cases were spread throughout New Zealand.

Mr Poland said sparrows died of salmonella only when other stressful factors, such as bad weather or a lack of food, were present. This explained why the deaths were more frequent in winter.