FATAL DISEASE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13687, 20 October 1937, Page 4

FATAL DISEASE.

I EANSAfITTED BY “BUDDIES

Electric* Telegraph- Pres* rmu AUCKLAND, Last Night. The symptoms discernible in a fatal case of pneumonia which led to a strong suspicion that death was due to psittacosis* or parrots l’ disease, prompted a warning being issued to budgerigar fanciers by Dr. J. P. Hastings at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board. He said that, in view of the fact that this was the first probable case to be reported in the Dominion and on account of the extreme mortality of the disease, it was a matter of national importance. Many proven cases of the disease being transmitted from budgerigars to humans were known in England and California, and in the United States it was illegal to move birds from one State to another without a certificate of health issued by an authorised veterinary surgeon. In the fatal Auckland case, Dr. Hastings explained, the patient resisted all forms of treatment, and the whole clinical picture illustrated that death was almost certainly due to psittacosis. As budgerigars were ntrt»d by the patient’s family, the inference was the disease had been transmitted from them. He mentioned that officials of the Tlealth Department and Dr. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, were conducting investigations. Dr. Hastings added that the symptoms in birds that were affected were loss of appetite, drowsiness, severe diarrhoea, drooping of wings and general debility. In man the most usual symptoms were pneumonia, which was exceptionally toxic.