Fears grow of deadly tropical virus killing blackbirds

Fears are increasing in Germany that blackbirds Turdus merula are being wiped out by a tropical disease, while tests are being conducted on a number of cadavers to try to find out why they died. Reports of mass deaths of blackbirds through the Rhine-Neckar area of Germany have been gathering pace over the last few weeks, and on Wednesday the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, pointed the finger at the Usutu virus which comes from Africa.

Source: The Local, Germany's News in English, 14 September 2011
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110914-37579.html