PARROT DISEASE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3972, 29 April 1930, Page 25

PARROT DISEASE.

ANOTHER VICTIM.

THREE OF A FAMILY ILL.

LONDON, Alarch 21.

The death of Dr Charles Spencer, Mayor of Ashton, last week, provides the seventh fatal ease of suspected parrot disease this year. Airs Spencer (the Alayoress), Aliss Greenwood, the doctor’s dispenser, and Dr Hubert Spencer, his son, are still m hospital, the two ladies being in a serious condition.

Dr Hubert Spencer, the first to show symptoms of the disease, is slowly improving. He became suddenly ill recently after dissecting a pet parrot which had died. His father, who suspected psittacosis and treated him quickly, then developed similar symptoms. A thrush bought recently from a Manchester aviary is believed to have infected the parrot. Traps are being set in the house for mice in the hope that they will prove to be the carrying link between the thrush and the parrot. Dr Enrique Barros, a special envoy of the Aledical Association of the Argentine, now in England, rushed to Ashton on hearing of the death of Dr Spencer. Dr Barros was a member of a special committee of investigation into the origin of a parrot disease epidemic which mysteriously appeared in various towns in the Argentine. He tracked the infection to a parrot merchant who, with a consignment of 5000 parrots, was touring the markets. Alany of these parrots were exported to Europe, and may be the source of infection in this country.