Death Of Parrots Is Cause Of Concern In Wanganui.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19036, 3 April 1930, Page 7

Death Of Parrots Is Cause Of Concern In Wanganui.

DREADED DISEASE MAY BE PRESENT; HEALTH OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE CASES

(Special to the “ Star.”)

WANGANUI, April 3. AN EPIDEMIC among parrots in Wanganui recently has caused considerable concern among those to whom the information was made known, and there is a good deal of speculation as to whether the cause of death may not be parrot disease, psittacosis.

The is usually a very hardy bird and lives to a great age, so when nine birds died in succession in Wanganui in one locality it is not to be wondered at that the health authorities when notified, viewed the matter with alarm. Dr Ritchie, of the Health Depart ment, Wellington, made a hurried visit to Wanganui, and one of the dead birds was sent to a bacteriologist at Wellington for examination. As far as can be ascertained no definite decision has been arrived at as to what caused the death of this bird. These are the only known cases of deaths -among parrots in Wanganui of late, but, of course, there'may be other similar happenings of which the health authorities havs not been apprised. Recently the Government, acting under the advice of the health authorities, placed an embargo on the importation of parrots into the Dominion. If the death of these birds can be definitely established as due to parrot disease, then the embargo has come too late. EPIDEMIC FEARED BY HOME DOCTORS. DISEASE HAS HIGH RATE OF MORTALITY. The mortality from parrot disease is as high as 40 per cent, and the older the patient who suffers the greater the risk of death. Doctors have no real idea yet as to,

the cause, or cure, of the disease, except that it is spread by green parrots. Human beings who catch the disease from a parrot can pass it on to other persons. The symptoms of the illness are of the most terrible character. They include:—Sudden faintness, intolerable headache, nose bleeding, vomiting, photophobia, or dread of any light, a form of lung trouble which is to pneumonia, but is not actual pneumonia, unconsciousness and death. Intensive research is being carried out in the laboratories of the London Hospital to try to isolate the origin of the dis&ase. A virus has been secured which may be the cause. That virus may be the same as the virus of fowl plague. There was a serious epidemic of the disease among birds and animals in the Argentine in July of last year, and since then the disease has appeared in Britain. Green parrots imported from the Argentine appeared to be susceptible to the disease, although it did occur in grey parrots from Africa, said a doctor at a London inquest. i It was not yet clear whether the disease came from the bird’s feathers, and apparently it was not necessary to touch the bird to catch the disease. Cases were known to have arisen from a bird which had been in England for eight months, and healthy the whole of that time. One instance was known where a girl had been infected by her sister, but there the girl had used her sister’s handkerchief. A post-mortem examination of a victim showed that the condition of the lungs was not typical pneumonia. Clinically, the disease was akin to typhoid.