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AVIAN ‘FLU
– AGAIN!
15 November 2005
In the light of today’s news (reported in full on the DEFRA website) that the Orange Winged Amazon in the Essex quarantine facility last month did not have Avian Influenza H5N1, but that some 30-odd Mesias did, I would like to add the following to my earlier comments:
a) This news confirms that we are dealing with a virus outbreak from South East Asia, where the disease is endemic, and that at the current time, birds from the Americas and Africa are likely to be free of infection.
b) As I have said before, in general parrot species are not highly susceptible to this disease, unlike poultry and waterfowl. Therefore parrot keepers, that may have been unnecessarily alarmed when the death of the Amazon was reported, can relax a bit more now. Certainly indoor pet birds should be perfectly safe.
c) The quarantine system works – the virus was detected, and thereby prevented from reaching the open market. The system is designed to prevent the ingress of Newcastle Disease and Avian Influenza, and it would be standard practice when many birds are involved to test pooled samples from the birds. This means that a positive test confirms the presence of infection, and since the disease is so contagious, all birds are considered infected and are therefore rightly slaughtered. However, this system does not allow the pinpointing of infection to an individual bird.
d) Having said that, it appears that only Mesias were infected, and no other species, including the sentinel chickens. To my mind this suggests that spread of the virus occurs only at close quarters, and the risks of infection from overhead migrating birds have been exaggerated.
e) Questions still need to be answered as to why birds from South East Asia were imported in the first place in the face of an AI outbreak, and secondly why the groups from Asia and South America were allowed to be mixed. If they had been quarantines separately, those unfortunate Amazon parrots would most probably still be alive today.
Alan K Jones 15/11/05