Over a period of several days, research organizations and experts made a thorough clinical study of living and dead birds, isolating and identifying the infectious bacteria, conducting pathological examinations, and carrying out toxicological assays. On December 16, the COA announced that type C1 botulism had caused the spoonbills 'deaths.
連日來，經各研究單位及學者專家進行臨床症狀檢查、細菌分離鑑定、組織病理檢查、毒物試驗等等檢驗後，十二月十六日農委會發佈新聞指出，黑面琵鷺確定死亡原因為Ｃ１型肉毒梭狀桿菌毒素中毒。