Faenza: Mystery revealed, the death of over 800 turtle doves could have been caused by sunflower seed waste processed in a local oil mill.
A sort of indigestion of processed sunflower seed waste, ingested in doses much higher than needed, in the storage areas of the nearby Tampieri spa oil mill-distillery in via Granarolo. This could be the cause of the dying of hundreds of turtle doves recorded in recent days in Faenza, in the province of Ravenna.
This was supported by Rodolfo Ridolfi, former regional councilor of Forza Italia, now advisor to the minister Renato Brunetta and councilor of the Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, which also has an office in Lugo (Ravenna).
In this capacity, Ridolfi has anticipated to the local press what could be the results of the analyzes on a sample of bird carcasses (in total there are about 800 those collected by WWF volunteers since the beginning of the month).
The turtledoves - according to Ridolfi - are said to have died from having eaten in excess of what remains of the processing of sunflower seeds. So much so that in the goiter of the animals already examined, abundant traces of this product were found.
The analyzes already carried out - he explained - have shown injuries to the liver of the birds because the turtledove, as emerges from the scientific literature, when it eats more than its needs, risks dying.
Birds that share the same spaces, such as gulls and pigeons, have not had the same problem because they have different physiological characteristics that make them more resistant.
Finally, Ridolfi specified that the Institute is carrying out further analyzes as a precaution to verify the possible concomitance of infectious diseases in turtledoves. However, the officialization of the analyzes will arrive only on Monday when the results will be delivered to the veterinary service of the Ausl and to the State Forestry Corps.
Source: Leggo.it