Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) at Lake Zumpango, State of Mexico

We documented, for the first time, the presence of the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) at Lake Zumpango in the State of Mexico. In October 2016, we spotted a juvenile spoonbill feeding off the shore of this water reservoir. Probably, the bird was an occasional vagrant to the Valley of Mexico, so we advance the idea that the Lake Zumpango might be providing an alternative habitat for the species, given that the wetlands of Lake Texcoco (where the species has been previously recorded) are threatened by the undergoing construction of the new International Airport of Mexico City.

A bumblefoot outbreak and fatal septicemia in captive aquatic birds in Brazil

A bumblefoot outbreak with different prognosis according to host species was studied in captive aquatic avian species. Six wood ducks (Aix sponsa), three scarlet-ibis (Eudocimus ruber), two black-swans (Cygnus atratus), five white-faced ducks (Dendrocygna viduata) and two roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja) were kept in a common pen with abrasive pavement pond margin, predisposing to podal skin wear. Incoordination and mortality occurred in the two roseate spoonbils and one black swan. Coagulase-positive penicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the synovial fluid and from the liver. All birds sharing the pen presented active or cicatricial foot lesions, indicating a possible challenge to the environmental Staphylococci. However, except for the roseate spoonbill and the black swan, which had fatal disease, for all other species the case did not evolve to a clinically debilitating or fatal disease. The different susceptibility to a fatal Staphylococcus aureus coagulase positive infection is discussed.