Officials Probe Deaths of 20 Ducks at Pond : Last month, hundreds of catfish died at nearby lake. The causes are unknown but a link is suspected.

It’s not easy being an animal lover these days in Long Beach’s El Dorado Regional Park.

Last month, hundreds of catfish turned up dead along the shoreline of a popular fishing lake. This week, at the El Dorado Duck Pond along Studebaker Road, at least 20 ducks have died since Saturday.

“It’s brutal,” duck lover Roseann Krawciw said as she held a bag of bird seed and walked along the pond’s banks. “When I see a dead duck my heart goes through my throat.”

While wildlife officials have not determined what caused the deaths, they speculate that the catfish were sick before they were put into the lake Sept. 12. As for the ducks, they say waterfowl disease such as avian botulism could be the culprit.

And there may be a link.

The long duck pond next to El Dorado Golf Course is home to a host of mallards, white ducks, a variety of geese and other migratory waterfowl.

While some never leave, others come and go, and that’s how the disease can be introduced into the population at the pond, said Chanelle Davis, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.

A single bird with the disease can fly to the pond and spread the disease to the other birds, she said. The dead fish could be linked to the problem if one of the birds were to eat disease-infested maggots feeding on the decaying fish, Davis said. Avian botulism is often spread through maggots.

“It’s a hard thing to control,” she said.

As long as people do not eat the dead birds, the botulism that kills ducks does not pose a threat to humans. The pond has remained open since the dead birds were discovered.

Avian botulism is common, especially in the summer, when high temperatures cause pond water to evaporate. The bacteria collects in the soil along the shoreline, and when the water recedes, the birds are more likely to ingest bacteria, Davis said.

The bacteria attacks the nerves, paralyzing the bird.

The disease has killed birds in other areas of Southern California in recent months. Officials say the best way to prevent the disease from spreading is to collect the dead birds as soon as possible. That way maggots can’t accumulate on the carcasses.

That approach is working at the El Dorado Duck Pond, where the dead ducks were collected Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Most birds at the pond have remained healthy. Earlier this week, hundreds of ducks were frolicking in the water and gobbling bread crumbs along the pond’s shore.

That was good news to Jean Lewis, 57, of Seal Beach, who visits the pond at least once a week to feed the ducks.

“I love it here,” Lewis said as she watched several ducks waddle toward a pile of bird seed. “It’s so relaxing. In the middle of all the noise the pond is a great escape.”

After getting word of the problem, Lewis left her bread crumbs at home because she was not sure any ducks would feel like eating. On Monday, she wished she had brought the bread, or some of the oatmeal cereal she once fed to the ducks.

“They loved it,” she said.

As for the fish that died last month at a nearby lake, officials said the problem seems to be resolved. Since the initial deaths, no other dead fish have turned up. “We think we just got a bad batch of fish,” said Long Beach official Phil Hester.

Several times a year, fish are dumped into the lake north of Spring Street, which is a popular fishing site.

Officials won’t know exactly what caused the ducks’ deaths until next week, when the results of an analysis are due back from a San Bernardino laboratory where the dead ducks were sent.

“We’ll figure out what’s going on,” Hester said.