Intoxication is for the birds

What a hoot! Drunk birds...

Intoxication is for the birds


Apparently, students aren't the only ones getting hammered.

Local citizens have reported drunken pigeons and doves in the downtown Iowa City area in the past few days - seemingly intoxicated because they were found stumbling around in a daze, officials said.

Misha Goodman, the director of the Iowa City Animal Care and Adoption Center, said on Tuesday that five people have recently contacted the center, concerned about the shaking and swaying birds displaying neurological symptoms.

"People have seen them on Washington Street, Clinton Street, and Summit Street, but we think the same one was seen on Summit Street a few times," Goodman said. "The birds are seen shaking and acting weird."

The director added that the pigeons and doves' drunken stupor may be the result of the birds' chomping on fermented grain or berries.

"There is no harm to humans," she said. "And so far, we've only heard of one dead dove."

She urged residents to report any additional sights of "weird"-acting birds to the 111 Kirkwood Ave. center. She added that the center receives calls every year in the fall about birds exhibiting the odd behavior.

Officials have reported some problems with eastern Iowa grain this year because of the existence of mycotoxins, which can be dangerous to animals, said Palle Pedersen, an Iowa State University assistant professor of agronomy.

"I think the birds have just been doing too much tailgating" he said, laughing. Though the toxins in the grain are not the same as the chemicals in alcohol, the two may have similar effects, he added.

Mycotoxins are fungal metabolites that are poisonous when consumed by animals, including humans, according to the Food and Research Institute Briefings, a research branch at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The toxins can accumulate in maturing corn, cereals, soybeans, sorghum, peanuts, and other food and feed crops in the field and in grain during transportation of the grain. Mycotoxins may surface in storage under conditions favorable for the growth of the toxin-producing fungus or fungi.

Lisa James, the UI Student Health Service nurse manager, said the small crew of drunken birds downtown is not connected in any way with West Nile virus or the avian-flu epidemic, so residents need not worry.

"When birds are found with West Nile virus, they are found dead, and that season has already passed," she said. "West Nile virus is mostly found in mosquitoes, and we're not seeing a lot of mosquitoes anymore. That ended in late summer."

As for the avian flu, James said that because the virus is concentrated in Asia and is definitely not in Iowa, residents have no reason to be concerned about the possibility of an outbreak.