Investigations into the cause of death of hundreds of vultures

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC - The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) says it is unable to identify any environmental reasons why more than 100 black vultures (Coragyps atratus) died in West Trinidad on Monday. The EMA said it is also working on the theory that the birds may have been feeding on the carcass of an animal which had been poisoned. “We can’t identify an environmental cause as such that they were exposed to. There were 150 birds, we estimated. There was nothing else in the vicinity. We have been liaising with the Poultry Surveillance Unit, which is part of the National Disease Centre, to see if it was a case of the avian flu,” EMA chief executive officer Dr. Joth Singh told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper.