Kākāpō disease 'crisis' which garnered $200k in donations remains a mystery

Thursday, 8 August 2019

A seventh kakapo being treated for the respiratory disease aspergillosis has died.

The cause of a disease which killed seven kākāpō remains unknown to the scientists scrambling to save them.

There's fewer than 200 kākāpō left in New Zealand and this year seven birds have died from aspergillosis, a respiratory fungal disease.

Department of Conservation (DOC) science advisor Dr Andrew Digby said eight birds had recovered from the outbreak and five remained sick.

'We're leading several research projects to find out why it happened.'

**READ MORE:

Nine kākāpō are still being treated at Auckland Zoo and four in Dunedin for aspergillosis, a respiratory fungal disease.

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* Seventh kākāpō chick dies from respiratory disease plaguing endangered species

* DOC pleads for donations as endangered kākāpō die from disease

The last kākāpō breeding season saw the population increase from 147 adults in January to 142 adults and 72 chicks still alive today.

* Kākāpō are dying, and we humans don't seem to care**

In total, DOC scanned and treated about 50 birds.

Kākāpō are considered nationally critical. Digby said losing seven birds was significant, but it could have been worse.

The kākāpō (meaning night parrot) is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrots, and is endemic to New Zealand.

'Fast diagnosis and effective treatment has made the death toll much lower (so far) than we were fearing.

'It could also have affected more of the population, but that doesn't seem to have been the case.'

The last breeding season saw the population increasefrom 147 adults in January to 142 adults and 72 chicks still alive today.

DOC researchers are investigating two possible causes of the disease - very high levels of aspergillus in the environment due to the climate, which the birds' immune systems couldn't cope with, or a virus or a bacteria suppressing their ' immune systems.

'We're coordinating genetic sequencing of the fungus itself to help find out where it might have come from,' Digby said.

They were also working to determine whether there was an underlying virus or bacteria that they hadn't yet detected.

'We're also doing statistical analyses of the infection patterns, and attempting to develop better diagnostic tools. Lots of research organisations around NZ and some internationally are involved in this research.'

The disease was present on Whenua Hou Codfish Island and the island's entire population was considered threatened by the disease.

During the outbreak in June the disease spread rapidly.

Digby said donations had soared to at least $200,000, 'enabling us to extend and expedite our research and treatment response to this crisis'.

Further costs for diagnoses, treatment and translocations would be met with DOC funding, he said.

Work will start soon on monitoring protocols to detect high aspergillus loads and other bacteria or viruses.

The birds which have been cleared on CT scan will be kept at Auckland Zoo until all other results are clear, medications finished, and weight is stable.

'Then they'll back to the weaning pen on Whenua Hou, until they're ready for release into the wild.'