Dead crows in Millwood area a mystery to officials

Health and wildlife officials are testing for West Nile virus in dead crows that have turned up on streets and lawns in the Millwood area, but they say a different virus is more likely to blame for the sick birds.

Millwood resident Christine Cross was heading home Wednesday morning after taking her son to school and saw two dead crows in the middle of East Empire Avenue. She continued to her street and saw two more crows flopping around in the middle of the road

“We just thought that it was really odd,” she said. “They weren’t hurt or anything. It just looked like they were having a seizure.”

Another six crows were in her side yard seizing, she said.

“Their eyes were all rolling in the back of their heads,” she said. “It was really creepy.”

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has received about a dozen reports of dead crows this week from residents in the Millwood area, department veterinarian Kristin Mansfield said.

That comes after a summer with higher-than-average crow deaths in the Spokane area due to a virus that affects corvids, the family of birds that includes crows. Mansfield believes that virus, which does not affect humans, is to blame for the recent deaths.

“That’s what we are highly suspicious of is going on with the crows currently in the Millwood area,” Mansfield said.

West Nile virus testing is being done because “there’s a potential for West Nile virus in the area,” said Steve Main, technical adviser for the Spokane Regional Health District living environment program.

Corvids like crows, ravens, magpies and jays are “sentinel species” that are more quickly affected by West Nile than other types of birds.

West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease that cannot be spread from birds to people. It was discovered in 1999, with the first Washington cases reported in 2006.

In 2015, 20 human cases have been reported statewide, none in Spokane County.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will conduct its own tests to determine how the birds died, Main said.

The health district is following up with residents who have reported dead crows and are hoping to find a freshly dead bird they can send to a veterinary lab at WSU for testing.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife also will test dead birds, though it will not collect samples over the weekend. Anyone with a crow or other corvid that’s been dead for less than 24 hours should call the state dead bird hotline at (800) 606-8768 or report it  online via the Washington Department of Health website.

Other birds do not need to be reported and should be safely disposed of, Main said, and people should not show up at the health district building with dead birds.