
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991                   TAG: 9104180566
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

STATE CHECKING INTO CAUSE OF BIRD KILL

State officials hope an examination of dead birds found in three cornfields will determine whether they were killed by a strictly regulated pesticide.

Monitors hired by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries found the birds, including robins and sparrows, within the past two weeks in fields in King George, Isle of Wight and Surry counties.

From four to 12 birds were found at each location, said B.J. Altschul of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which also is involved in the monitoring. No eagles or other raptors were found.

Officials want to determine whether the birds were killed by Furadan 15G, which was blamed on the deaths of thre bald eagles and the poisoning of a fourth in Virginia in the late 1980s. The pesticide also was linked last spring to the deaths of more than 200 blackbirds in Essex and Accomack counties.

- Associated Press

by CNB