BOY DIES FROM BUDGIE BITE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28606, 7 June 1958, Page 8

BOY DIES FROM BUDGIE BITE

Report In British Publication Bird-lovers need not be alarmed at an English report of a boy dying of poliomyelitis after being bitten by his pet budgerigar, said the Deputy-Medical Officer of Health Dr. W. I. Paterson). The bird was one of a pair whose mate had already died. It was recovering from a paralysis of its legs when it was let out of the cage and bit the boy on his lip, according to a report in the “Lancet.” An examination of the bird's droppings showed that they carried the virus of the virulent No. 1 type of poliomyelitis. When the bird was killed the virus was found again—in its intestines. “This is probably the first known case of poliomyelitis being contracted from a budgerigar,” said Dr. Paterson. “I don’t think there is any cause for alarm among owners of these birds.” One of the difficulties in poliomyelitis research had been that rhesus monkeys had so far been found to be the only animais which carried it and on which experiments could be carried out. Dogs, cats and ntojes had been named as possible reservoirs of poliomyelitis, but in each case laboratory evidence failed to confirm these suspicions.