Successful Treatment of Lead Poisoning in a Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) and a Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) in Korea

Successful Treatment of Lead Poisoning in a Whooper Swan (Cygnus cygnus) and a Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) in Korea

We described the successful treatment of cases of lead poisoning in a Whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) and a Cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) in Korea. The swan and vulture rescued were diagnosed with lead poisoning based on clinical signs, the presence of suspected lead-like particles in the ventriculus detected by radiography and elevated blood lead levels. Endoscopic retrieval for the swan and gastric lavage for the vulture were used to remove the lead respectively. After the removal of lead particles, a course of chelation treatment was administrated. This would be the first report of successfully treating wild birds with lead poisoning in Korea.