do pekin ducks carry diseases
144 Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases: Birds Figure 16.4 During the 1973 outbreakof duck plague at Lake Andes NationalWildlife Refuge in South Dakota, morethan 40,000 mallards died. Photo by Milton Friend from adjacent Flanders Bay, apparently as a result of diseasetransmission from white Pekin ducks.ittle is known about the response of wild water-fowl to strain differences.Duck plague outbreaks are thought to be caused whenbirds that carry the virus shed it through fecal or oral dis-charge, thus releasing the virus into food and water withwhich susceptible birds may have contact.