Virus that killed around 100 crows in Chatham-Kent isn't something to worry about: expert

Crows have become a celebrated bird in Chatham-Kent, but in recent weeks an alarming amount of crow deaths has caught the attention of pathologists in southern Ontario.

Brian Stevens, a veterinary pathologist with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, told CBC News his team hasn't received their full lab results yet but they believe the crows are likely dying from an avian reovirus. 

He said it's "a virus that attacks these crows, attacks their internal organs, especially their intestinal tract and causes severe death of the tissues and eventually death of the crow."

He said over a hundred dead crows have been found in the region this winter. 

Stevens said the cold weather makes it easier for viruses to last outside of the body, which is the likely cause for the spread of the reovirus. 

"If you think about human viruses like influenza, they typically are worse during the fall and winter months, and that's because the virus can survive outside of the animal during the winter months in this cold weather," he said. 

Chatham-Kent has a history with its large crow population, said Crowfest co-chair Andrew Theil.

"For a long time they were kind of viewed as a nuisance and they would get into garbage cans and cause a mess and whatnot," he said.

But over the last few years the municipality gave out garbage bins and stopped the mess, which started an all new attitude toward the birds. 

"People started appreciating them a little bit more for how smart they are," he said. 

"We decided to celebrate them." 

Last year the municipality held its first Crowfest, a four day festival that celebrates the region's crows. A highlight of the festival is the 'Crow Your Boat' fundraiser race, where residents race each other in crow-shaped boats and donate money to epilepsy research. 

"It's more or less kind of like the old rubber duck races that you used to see," he said. 

Stevens said the large population of crows in Chatham-Kent means a larger spread of illnesses like reovirus.