Health risks from Starlings in
Cheshire
Alex Stewart CCDC
May 2012
NWZG
Starlings
• Passerine:
• > ½ all bird spp
• Perching birds
Starlings
Flock in larger numbers than any other UK passerine
(possible exceptions rooks and jackdaws).
Use winter roosts, fly at higher densities than other
UK passerines, even pigeons.
Problems / Complaints
Issues
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Nuisance
Allergy
Aircraft strikes
Road collisions
Flock mass mortality
Consume livestock fodder
Physical spoilage of fodder by faeces
Psychological issues?
Diseases spread
• Swine dysentery
• Increase dissemination of salmonella
– Stm DT 40 & 56 prevalent in garden birds at
contaminated garden birds feeders
– Humans get mild disease
– BUT in NZ Stm DT160 can hospitalise
– Starlings use feeders poorly
• Avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC)
• ?Avian Flu, PMV1, Newcastle disease, Yersinia,
MTB avium, campylobacter, histoplasmosis…?
Histoplasmosis????
• UK Student
• Flu-like illness followed by a dry cough and
mild exertional shortness of breath
• Chest x-ray:
– diffuse, miliary shadowing
– later - persistent diffuse nodularity with suspicion
of a thin-walled cavity
• Pulmonary histoplasmosis
confirmed by serology
History
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19 Jun to 20 Jul
Biology trip to Uganda rainforest
Studying insects, primates & bats
Climbed in hollow tree full of bats once
1 Aug developed flu-like illness
Diagnosed late August
9/24 students diagnosed
Symptoms resolved spontaneously – did not
require treatment
Histoplasmosis
H capsulatum
• dimorphic fungus
• remains in mycelial form at ambient temperatures
• grows as yeast at body temperature in mammals
In soil
Spread
• Birds cannot be infected
• Birds do not transmit
disease
• Bird excretions
contaminate soil
• N enriches growth
medium for the
mycelium
• Bats become infected & transmit via faeces
Soil
• Soil potentially infectious for years
• Histoplasmosis outbreaks associated with
construction & renovation that disrupt
contaminated soil
• SO - Cleaning under trees in UK?
UK histoplasmosis?
• Last indigenous case in 1950s
UK starlings?
• Unlikely to cause significant human disease