Abstract
Some days ago I received a phone call from an A.F .A. member to inform me that some recently imported parrots, which the member had purchased, died. The owner was not too alarmed as she felt the birds would be replaced by the importer.
They were sent to the local veterinarian for necropsy.
A few days later the now alarmed member called again to report that more birds were dying. These were brought down to the State Diagnostic Laboratory.
This call was followed by the distressing information that the daughter's pet White Crown Parrot, "Baby", had died. Each day brought the sad news of more deaths - a Blue Fronted, an African Grey, another Blue Fronted, a Blue & Gold Macaw, a Yellow Fronted, a Quaker and a Half Moon, another Yellow Fronted, a Mealy Amazon and anothr Blue & Gold Macaw, a Yellow Fronted, the family pet "Reggie" - an Orange Cheeked Amazon, a female breeding Hyacinth Macaw, and it appears that almost the entire parrot population of the aviary will die.
The laboratory diagnosis: Pacheco's Parrot Disease.
This is but one of many incidence of such sad losses over the past year.
Two other breeders in the midwest lost thousands of dollars worth of valuable birds to this dread killer. One in the northwest experienced the same tragedy, including the anguish of losing his pet of many years, a cockatoo; and, most of us are qcquainted with the disaster which this disease caused in 197 4 in Florida in a valuable bird population there.
In most of these cases the story is the same: Imported birds were purchased out of quarantine - placed in aviaries - disaster - Pacheco's Parrot Disease.
A few months ago a pet shop owner purchased some imported Yellow Fronted and Orange Winged Parrots out of quarantine. Some of the birds appeared to have a cold, so the owner's life took them home for treatment. Isolation was in a separate room. She had other parrots. They developed respiratory problems; she, a conjunctivitis. Diagnosis on both parrots and owner: Psittacosis.
This case history seems to be coming commonplace.
What can be done?
The fact that a dealer advertises "U.S.D.A. Approved Quarantine Facilities", "Government Approved", "U.S.D.A. Inspected", or makes any other reference to official inspection is no guarantee that you will receive healthy birds.
YOU BUY COMPLETELY AT YOUR OWN RISK AND TO YOUR OWN PERIL!
U.S.D.A. surveillance and release of birds from a quarantine station means only that they have passed the prescribed period of quarantine required by law and that no positive evidence was found to indicate that the birds were infected with Exotic Newcastle Disease (VVND)_ This is usually a pretty good assurance that the birds are free from V.V.N.D., but U.S.D.A. does not even warrant this to be true.
U.S.D.A. (Veterinary Services) has no authorization to inspect for any other avian diseases at the quarantine facility other than V.V.N.D. Therefore, Veterinary Services cannot certify that the birds purchased by you when released by them from quarantine are free from dangerously contagious or infectious disease or known exposure thereto.
In fact, sick birds infected with dangerously contagious diseases ARE FOUND on inspection. Once the possibility of V.V.N.D. has been eliminated, Veterinary Services, at the present time, can do nothing about if; and after quarantine release these birds, some exposed, some even in the incubative stage of the disease, are sold to unsuspecting buyers.
Hemolytic viruses and other pathogens have been found on culture at the Federal Laboratory indicating a serious problem, and still the dealer is free to peddle these birds and perhaps destroy a breeder's entire aviary so long as no evidence of V .V .N .D. was found.