The Kauai Humane Society suspects that an overwhelming bacterial infection has killed dozens of chickens on Kaua‘i. Humane Society staff collected 15 dead birds and three ill ones in Wailua yesterday, though many more had already decomposed in the area.
The Kauai Humane Society suspects that an overwhelming bacterial infection has killed dozens of chickens on Kaua‘i.
Humane Society staff collected 15 dead birds and three ill ones in Wailua yesterday, though many more had already decomposed in the area.
According to Humane Society Director Becky Rhoades, 10 were removed from St. Catherine Church in Kapa‘a and six from Anahola in the last week.
All showed signs of a bacterial infection that is normally not contagious to humans or other birds, Rhoades said.
“I don’t think we have something that is going bird to bird,” she said.
Wailua resident Ann Hanamura contacted the Humane Society and the Department of Land and Natural Resources about the dying birds, as she first suspected poisoning.
For the last three weeks, the number of ill birds and carcasses near a macadamia nut tree in the empty lot abutting her property has increased.
The 40 roosters, hens and chicks who inhabited the area has dwindled to about six live birds. Hanamura knows because her family used to feed them, keep tabs on the mother hens and chicks, and count on them to keep away bugs. She said she even had some favorites.
“You don’t want to see them dying a slow death like this,” Hanamura said.
On the scene yesterday, Humane Officer Dan Batulayan pointed to the birds’ runny noses and red eyes as symptoms of the infection that staff has seen elsewhere on the island.
Rhoades noted that poisoned birds expire quickly and do not show lingering signs of sickness. In addition, there was no evidence of poison pellets in the vicinity.
The three sick but still living birds were euthanized at the Humane Society in Puhi. Rhoades opened the stomach of one and found inflamed intestines. She said there were no signs of poisoning and no obvious worms or parasites.
The other two were sent to the state Department of Agriculture on O‘ahu for testing.
Results should be available in a week. She said the birds removed from Anahola and Kapa‘a last week were too badly decayed to be sent for tests.
However, test results from deceased birds found in Waimea a few months ago with similar symptoms revealed enteritis, or inflammation of the intestines.
Such bacterial infections can turn deadly in areas with an overpopulation of chickens, Rhoades said.
The Kauai Invasive Species Committee, a volunteer organization, works with the Department of Health to respond to calls about recently deceased birds.
Project Manager Keren Gundersen said the primary concern is West Nile virus, as it has not yet been found in the Hawaiian Islands.
“It would be really devastating to our bird population,” she said.
On avian influenza, Gundersen said to date it has been passed through farm-raised chickens, not wild birds.
Rhoades said both the Humane Society and the Invasive Species Committee will be working together to investigate dead or dying birds on Kaua‘i.
In addition to illness, the Humane Society also investigates complaints of mass animal killings, including suspected poisoning of chickens.
While killing pests such as rodents is permitted by law, chickens are not considered nuisance animals. However, the Humane Society recognizes that the dense population of the birds on-island can be a bother to residents, and it offers traps and a humane alternative to poisoning or shooting.
To report a dead chicken or other bird, call the Department of Health at 211 or the Humane Society at 632-0610.
• Blake Jones, business writer/assistant editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or bjones@kauaipubco.com.
