04.08.2016

The USGS National Wildlife Health Center is receiving reports of sick or dead double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), predominantly juveniles, from the Great Lakes region. Common clinical signs observed are increased fledgling mortality at rookeries, neck weakness, unilateral wing paralysis, incoordination, and tremors. Occasionally, concurrent mortality in other species including gulls and pelicans is reported. Virulent Newcastle Disease virus (vNDV) has been confirmed by genetic sequencing in cormorants submitted from Mille Lacs County, Minnesota. Cormorants from Blue Earth, Rice, and Big Stone Counties in Minnesota and Dodge County in Wisconsin have also screened positive for avian paramyxovirus-1 (APMV-1) and further characterization of the virus is on-going to determine if it is vNDV. None of the dead gulls or pelicans collected in association with cormorant mortality have been positive for APMV-1.