DEADLY PARROT DISEASE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 August 1930, Page 16

DEADLY PARROT DISEASE

DESIRABLE PRECAUTIONS. ' THE RECENT WORLD EPIDEMIC. The League of Nations health organisation has published a 3«5-page memorandum reviewing the history and nature of psittacosis or parrot disease, with special, reference, to the epidemic which has attracted, so much attention during the last year, says the. Montreal Star. The memorandum traces the recent world epidemic’ to the export of diseased Amazon parrots from Brazil in the summer and autumn of 1929. Manyother species of parrot are susceptible to the disease and it has even been transmitted by human beings, but the main transmitting agents are parrots of the species which started the trouble. This breed is common in Brazil, and, although it is also found in the Argentine and the first cases recorded in 1929 occurred last July and August at Cordoba, Alta Gracia, and Buenos Ayres in the Argentine, the cases were directly traceable to a consignment, of diseased parrots imported into the Argentine by an Italian dealer from Brazil. ■At the same time, cases also occurred in Hamburg, a port through which great quantities of parrots are imported into Germany. The report traces the spreal of the disease in the Argentine an’ in Europe (Germany, Czecho-Slo-vakia, Denmark, Holland, Austria, Switzerland, France and Great Britain) and shows how, .in practically every case, the villain of the piece was a sick parrot whose owners and their friends allowed it to peck them, eat out. of their mouths, etc. A characteristic of the disease is its spread in the form lof small or “family” epidemics; that is to say, one or two households become infected through contact with. a •sick parrot. Cases of direct transmission between human beings are known, but uncommon. Altogether . the 1929 epidemic has accounted for some 3-50 to 40-0 known cases, with a mortality rate of 35 to 40 per cent. It is therefore a rare disease, and not to be compared with a great epidemic of influenza, cholera, or other highly" infectious disease. On the other hand, the disease is not only very serious, with a high death rate, but most baffling in its symptoms, and transmitted by an unknown agent. The symptoms resemble typhoid fever, pneumonia and influenza and it is only, by discovering that a sick parrot lias figured, in the patient's recent •past that’ a doctor can be certain in diagnosing psittacosis. Although the disease has been known for some 50 vears, doctors, are still puzzled as to -the means by which it is transmitted. At one time it was believed that the bacillus causing it had been discovered, but this has now been disproved and the only thing known with any degree of cCrtaintv is that the agent is a filtrepassing virus belonging to the salmonelloses group (closely allied to the typhoid group). . . j The memorandum concludes by saying : that prophylactic precautions should include not only the prohibition of the imuort of parrots' —a measure taken by the" United States and all the European countries in which cases have occurred' —but should also forbid the importation of parrots’ wings and any part of their dead bodies. Psittacosis should be included in the list of compulsory notifiable diseases and a competent veterinary service should be organised so as to make possible the early detection of diseased parrots. Parrots should be kept in cages which are thoroughly cleaned and washed, their diop-, pin°-s and any objects which come in contact with the parrots should not be allowed to touch anything used by human beings. Above all, caresses and “mouth-to-mouth” feeding should be avoided.