Swans are being killed with kindness

Date Published: 11-Feb-2010

People who feed bread to the swans at The Claddagh may be killing them with kindness.

Research has found that bread mould is responsible for a debilitating condition which has affected Galway’s favourite swans for the past eight years.

Since 2002 the Claddagh swans have been falling victim to the condition known as ‘Pink Feather Flamingo Syndrome’. This causes them to lose their waterproofing and consequently they cannot feed on essential water weeds and algae. Some become hypothermic and eventually die.

As they lose weight, the Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue group have been supplementing their food with poultry pellets. For the past three years it has been researching the condition with a view to eradicating it. “We have been helped by the University of Orlando, Florida,USA and Professor John O’Halloran, Zoology Department, University College, Cork. Professor O’Halloran’s students have found that the condition is caused by bread mould,” said a spokesperson for the rescue group.

“We are asking the people of Galway city and county to take note – please do not feed moulded, stale or white bread to the swans. Moulded bread is causing deaths. White bread has no nutrition or fibre and consequently is indigestible for swans.”Good quality, yeast free, fibre rich brown bread is a suitable food, the spokesperson added, as are cooked vegetables e.g. potatoes, carrots, cabbage etc.

Meanwhile, Galway & Claddagh Swan Rescue has expressed its thanks to Galway City Council for giving it permission to erect a holding pen next to the existing Swan Sanctuary container in Lough Rusheen Park.

The group says the facility is badly needed for the treatment and rehabilation of injured swans and other wetland birds. For the past nine years all this work and the rearing of orphaned birds has been carried out in the back gardens and homes of the volunteers.