Poisoning unofficial cause of death of almost 1000 birds near Kikinda

At the beginning of March, the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia (DZPPS) announced that it had found more than 800 dead birds on the arable land of the Vojvodina village of Nakovo near Kikinda. Among them were 434 gačac, protected by the fallow, and 373 jackdaws, which is a species protected by law.

Milan Ružić from the Society for the Protection and Study of Birds of Serbia for "Vreme" he says he has doubts that it was poisoning because everything points to it.

Ružić continues, there was an acute death of a large number of birds and this cannot happen even when it comes to some highly contagious diseases that affect birds such as West Nile Virus, but especially bird flu.

West Nile Virus is not typical for this time of year, it mostly occurs during the summer, and bird flu is not a disease that attacks birds from the crow family in significant numbers.

"What we unofficially found out is that the analyzes showed that it is not some sort of viral disease. The analyzes were done during the last session at the Scientific Institute for Veterinary Science in Novi Sad and they showed that the animals had neither the presence of the virus nor that they were suspected of having died from it. So we rule out the natural circumstance - and that is the disease - and then, of course, we are left with poisoning," points out Ružić.

When it comes to poisoning, Ružić emphasizes, we have been waiting for the tenth day to find out what is at stake. However, he says, it is not easy to determine because unfortunately there is a huge number of preparations that are toxic to vertebrates such as birds on both the legal and non-legal market, so a targeted search must be done.

At that time, according to the DZPPS announcement, jays and jackdaws "literally fell dead" from the acacias and bushes in the atar, and that the birds were found on a local road and an irrigation canal.

A large number of police officers, veterinary inspectors and utility workers came to the scene. It is said that the dead animals were found in an area of ​​two kilometers, mostly near the roosts of crows, which include jackdaws and jackdaws. It is added that forensic experts recorded and recorded the dead birds, and that they were buried in a pit at the edge of the plowed field.

Photo: pticesrbije.rs

Impact on the ecosystem

When there is some suffering, in this case birds, the question always arises, what is the damage to the ecosystem? Ružić says that both the jackdaw and the jackdaw are not attractively colored, they do not sing well, and most people do not like them, but they play an extremely important role in agriculture.

"Let's remind our farmers to just look behind their tractors when plowing their fields in the fall or spring." There are jackdaws, jackdaws, gray crows, which go around and collect small animals, rodents, but also a large number of insects and feed on them when people plow the land. "By plowing the soil, these organisms, animals, which the farmer does not want in his field, come to the surface and then these birds gather them up," explains our interlocutor.

Every change that leads to the death of 800, and now probably already almost 1000 birds in an area, Ružić points out, has catastrophic consequences for thousands of hectares in that area because there are no organisms that remove other organisms in a natural way.

What is the solution?

"Is the solution for all of us to walk around with buckets of pesticides everywhere in cities, meadows, parks, fields, orchards and just poison ourselves all day long?" I don't think so."

And he further explains that the economic model of agriculture and the way in which these areas are managed must be changed.

"Farmers need a book in their hands and for everyone to go through a serious period of education, to learn that the way they work today is the Middle Ages and that it 'doesn't drink water'." We have to look a little across the border," emphasizes Ružić.

Finally, our interlocutor is of the opinion that the legislator must do his job to the end - if someone poisoned the birds, he should be found and held accountable.

"That this person be found and punished draconianly." In this case, if that certain compensation price list is applied for destroyed, killed protected species, and that includes grebes and jackdaws, I think that the fine is 40.000 dinars per bird. Multiply that by almost 1000 birds, that's a serious sum of 40.000.000 dinars," concludes our interlocutor.