PARROT DISEASE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19480, 12 November 1937, Page 3

PARROT DISEASE

INFECTION DANGER BUDGERIGARS AS CAUSE VIEWS OF DR. HASTINGS “There have been proven cases in Great Britain where psittacosis, or parrot’s disease, has been contracted from budgerigars," said Dr. J. P. Hastings in a statement issued in Auckland in which be replied to criticism which has been voiced at his announcement of a belief that a fatal case of the disease had occurred in Auckland. He explained that two such instances were reported in the British Medical Journal, Volume 2, 1933, page 914. At the present time laboratory tests on the birds which were suspected by Dr. Hastings of carrying Ihc disease are in progress at the Auckland Hospital. As psittacosis is of uncertain bacteriology, peculiar difficulties are presented in the pathological research and no definite result has yet been announced. Similarity in Another Case “About a week ago I was called to another patient, closely associated with budgerigars, who was suffering from severe pneumonia,” Dr. Hastings said. “His clinical picture in some respects closely resembled that of the earlier fatal case and he died in Auckland Hospital this morning. It is a curious and, perhaps, significant fact that in cases of psittacosis there are certain symptoms in the lungs which are of a characteristic pneumonic form. However, the presence of parrot's disease cannot be determined by a clinical examination and it can be detected only by certain research.” Dr. Hastings referred to an account of the proceedings of an international veterinary congress published in the British Medical Journal, 1931, in which Professor Meyer described an epidemic of psittacosis, traceable to parakeets. which had occurred in California. In Professor Meyer's opinion a filterable virus was the cause of the disease. Another Suggestion Made "I do not wish to unduly alarm the public but it is well that these facts should be known,” Dr. Hastings stated. "We know that psittacosis has a death rate of between 30 and 40 per cent in humans.” Dr. Hastings said that one or two cases which had come under his notice in an indirect way had suggested that infantile paralysis might possibly be carried by-members of the parrot family. It was generally supposed today that infantile paralysis was due to a filterable virus and he hoped that parents who had children suffering from infantile paralysis might make it known if the patients had been in contact with budgerigars or whether severe cases of pneumonia had occurred in the household.