"Surveillance for avian botulism has, over time, required the combined efforts of personnel from the Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada, Ontario Provincial Parks, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and members of the public. The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative (CWHC) continues to encourage all of these groups to report unusual occurrences of avian mortality around the shores of the lower Great Lakes and facilitates post mortem testing. Since this disease first appeared on the lower Great Lakes in 1998, the CWHC has been involved in cooperative efforts to monitor for the occurrence of suspected botulism events and to diagnostically confirm the presence of Type E botulism. The ecological factors that drive the occurrence of Type E botulism remain poorly understood, which means that maintaining surveillance is important as we seek to learn more about these ecological drivers."