WHAT CAUSED THE AVIAN BOTULISM OUTBREAK?
The pelicans were affected with avian botulism, a neuroparalytic disease of wild birds, which results from “food poisoning” by a neurotoxin produced predominantly by the bacterium Clostridium botulinurn type C. It is well known that botulism producing bacteria live dormant in the muck on the sea’s bottom and normally do not pose a health risk, yet in the Summer of 1996, a number of unusual conditions combined at the Salton Sea to create the avian botulism epidemic. Shortly before the outbreak, unusually high winds disturbed the lake floor and stirred large numbers of dormant clostridium spores into the water which were ingested by fish as they fed. Because the dormant spores must be activated before producing their toxin, this condition was not life threatening. The danger came from another source – an epidemic caused by the vibrio bacteria. Tilapia fish infected with the vibrio bacteria were dying, and as they died, the clositridium spores in their bodies were activated and began to p
