DETROIT - At least 200 geese have died for unknown reasons along the southwestern shores of Lake Erie while others are struggling to hold their heads up, stay upright and fly, Ohio officials said on Friday.

 

No cause has been diagnosed. Some of the dead birds have been sent to a national wildlife laboratory in Wisconsin for testing. Many sick birds have been sent to rehabilitation facilities.

 

The sick geese appear to have problems controlling their muscles, with many struggling to walk and others laying their heads on their backs, said Dave Sherman, a biologist at the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station operated by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

 

A few of the birds have lost control of their muscles while flying and dropped out of the sky, he said.

 

"If they're able to stand, they just act like they're sort of out of it," Sherman said. "If they're in the water, they'll flop around a little bit."

 

The problems were first noticed about three weeks ago when biologists sought to place monitors on some of the birds to study them and track migration patterns.

 

Dead birds have been found along a 40-mile stretch but most have been concentrated near FirstEnergy Corp's Bay Shore power plant situated near Maumee Bay outside Toledo.

 

The plant usually discharges warm water, making the local area the only source of open water for miles around during the frigid winter, Sherman said, and means more geese congregate there during the winter.

 

Sherman said it could be that one sick duck or goose entered the area and transferred its illness to the rest of the birds. He said it was unlikely this event was connected to other recent large-scale bird deaths seen in South Dakota and Arkansas.

 

The warmer weather of recent days has made it risky for investigators to venture out on the Lake Erie ice and gather the carcasses of the dead birds.

 

But the warmer weather also means the geese can spread out, lowering the chances that they get sick, said David Scott, executive administrator for the department's wildlife management program.

 

In January, thousands of red-winged blackbirds died in Arkansas, apparently due to New Year's Eve fireworks, officials said. The National Wildlife Health Center is currently investigating a number of large bird deaths, including the death of 7,000 mallards in South Dakota.

 

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman. Editing by Peter Bohan)

 

Copyright 2011  Reuters US Online Report Domestic News