United States Department of Agriculture 
Bureau of Biological S'.rvey 
Wi Idl ife Resear ch and Management Leaflet 
■Washington, D. C. 
BOTULISM, A RECURRING- EAZABD TO WATERFOWL 
With Notes on Recent Outbreaks i n the United States 
Canada., and Au strali a 
By E. R. Kalrabach, Senior Biologist, Section of Food Habits 
Division of Wildlife Research 
A little-known, yet dismal 
picture 
Outbreaks since 1932 . . . 
In the United States . . 
In Canada 
Content s 
Pago 
1 
3 
3 
5 
Outbreaks since 1932 — Cont'd 
In Australia ........ 
Safeguards for the future . . 
Literature cited 
Page 
6 
7 
8 
A LITTLE-KNOWN, YET DISMAL PICTURE 
Despite the great number of ducks and shore birds that have per- 
ished from botulism l/ in the past quarter of a century, relatively few 
sportsmen, naturalists, or bacteriologists have ever seen a wild bird 
afflicted with the disease. Even fewer have witnessed a devastating out- 
break. Reasons for this are not hard to find. Besides the fact that 
outbreaks of botulism among wild birds are localized, sporadic, and often 
of short duration, they are corollaries of stagnant, Steaming , ; malodorous 
flats and fathomless mud. They also reach their peak usually beneath the 
untempered sun of July, August, and September. Under such conditions the 
"call of the wild" loses some of its appeal even among the more ardent 
defenders of our thinning lines of waterfowl. By the time the hunting 
season opens, however, the environmental conditions conducive to the mal- 
ady may have so changed that it vanishes almost' as quickly as it appeared 
This led some into the erroneous belief that the shooting that comes with 
the opening of the season is all that is needed to remedy the situation. 
l/ Referred to in earlier literature as alkali poisoning, duck 
sickness, and western duck sickness. 
