The Nation - News from Dec. 28, 1988

Wildlife officials said they are concerned that an outbreak of avian cholera along the Texas Gulf Coast could spread to the winter home of the endangered North American whooping crane. If the disease strikes the birds, it could set back a decades-long effort to rebuild the whooping crane population. So far, the “whoopers” have not been affected by the cholera outbreak, which has killed 7,500 geese along the Texas coast, said Brent Giezentanner, manager of the Aransas National Refuge where the cranes spend the winter. If any evidence arises that the cholera outbreak has hit the whoopers, “we’ll just redouble our sanitation efforts. There’s not much more we can do,” Giezentanner said. The cholera outbreak is the worst ever to occur in Texas, which is the winter home of many migratory birds.