Waterfowl diseases: Causes, prevention, and control

Preventing and controlling disease in waterfowl is a difficult job. Few tools are available to deal with disease in highly mobile, unconfined animal populations, and few managers are trained and experienced in the prevention and control of avian diseases. Furthermore, the geographic distribution, frequency of occurrence, magnitude of losses, and causes of diseases in waterfowl, as in other life forms, change over time. Waterfowl mortality from infectious diseases, for example, has increased in the past 20 years (Friend 1992).