Cicada-induced Vitamin A Deficiency in Wild Birds Excerpt

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This webinar was recorded on October 29, 2025 on Cicada-induced Vitamin A Deficiency in Wild Birds. Our fantastic speaker is Dr. Sarah Reich of the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in Illinois, USA.

In 2021 and 2024, Dr. Sarah Reich and the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center personnel noticed an increase in admissions of wild fledgling birds showing symptoms that could have indicated the emergence of a new infectious disease, but turned out to be an unlikely culprit - a mono-diet of cicadas and severe vitamin A deficiency. Join IWRC for a free wildlife rehabilitation seminar featuring Dr. Reich, and the story of what happened, how the center responded, and the picture that emerged as they began to fit the puzzle pieces together!

Dr. Sarah Reich is the head veterinarian at DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center (formerly Willowbrook Wildlife Center), a high-volume rehabilitation center in the Chicago suburbs. She graduated from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and after an emergency internship, she has worked solely in wildlife medicine almost 10 years. If she could just treat woodcocks, opossums, and salamanders, she would be ecstatic, but there doesn’t seem to be quite a market for that yet.

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