Many Bird Species Exposed to "Eye Disease," New Study Finds
Tuesday, August 12, 2014 - 15:30
in Biology & Nature
"The results were shocking," says Andre Dhondt, director of Bird Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "More than half the bird species we tested have been exposed to the bacteria responsible for House Finch eye disease." A paper recently published in the online scientific journal PLOS ONE shows that a bacterial parasite previously thought to infect only a few species of feeder birds is actually infecting a surprisingly wide range of species, though most do not show signs of illness.