A New or Maybe a Not-so-new Disease of Lories
(Jim's story)
By James B. Taylor M.A.Sc. PEng
This article is about our experiences with Beak and Feather disease in lories. As I am neither a veterinarian nor a microbiologist a disclaimer is necessary. By profession I am a research engineer. As such I am used to reading and absorbing large quantities of new information and analyzing data. The following are my conclusions to date from my observations and the results of laboratory testing of many of my birds.
My wife and I have been breeding birds since 1992 and keep 12 species and subspecies of lories along with eight other species of parrots. We have roughly 100 birds at the present time kept mostly in indoor/outdoor flights. The climate of Vancouver Island allows most lories to be kept outdoors year around. We feed Aves Lorinectar from Holland in the morning and a fruit/vegetable puree with Avico Lorylife Powder added in the evening. We also supplement with fruit and corn on the cob. Water is supplied in Crock Loc dishes and the dishes are changed and sterilized every day.
Our inside flights each consist of a 2'x2'x4'high plastic lined plywood cage sitting on a laundry tub plumbed into the sewer system. The outside flights are 6'x3'x9'high using 1"x1" wire enclosures with gravel floors. There is double wire between flights with plastic sheet between the two layers of wire. Formerly we completely isolated each flight with the plastic sheet but now we have some of the sheet removed on the lower part of the divider so the birds can see one another. There is a sprinkler system in many of the flights. I am explaining the caging for a reason, which I will elaborate on later.
Most of the problems that we have been having are with blue-streak lories. We have been keeping this species since 1993 and have had much grief with them. The first problem happened in 1995. We started losing chicks from one pair of blue-streaks (pair#1). We lost a total of seven out of nine chicks in a two-year period. We assumed that there was a problem with the genetics of this pair of birds resulting in the chicks having a poorly developed immune system. All chicks were autopsied and the results were not much help. Any bird that dies is autopsied at the Animal Health Centre, Agriculture BC by Dr. Vicky Bowes and Dr. John Robinson and we keep the reports on file. Two died of polyoma, one of Pacheco's, some of bacterial infections and the rest of unknown causes. These chicks were raised with other chicks: blue-streaks, duskies, reds, other lories and parrotlets yet no other chick died.
As a result, we assumed that there was something genetically wrong with the pair (pair #1) and we split them up. We eventually lost the female from a bacterial infection and the male is doing fine at a friend’s aviary. The only common factor with all of these deaths (detailed in the autopsy report) was problems with the immune system.
In 1997 we purchased a pair of Swanson's from Europe. The pair produced a few healthy clutches and then the male started to pluck. We separated the birds and the male still kept on losing feathers. He eventually lost virtually all of his feathers and died from visceral gout, an accumulation of urates all around the internal organs. The female is doing fine. We placed one pair of our blue-streaks (pair #2) in the flight which the Swanson's were in and put two other pairs beside this pair (pairs 3 & 4). This was not a good move as they all became stressed due to their close proximity. Pair #2 went to nest and produced two chicks in 1998. One of the chicks lost all of her primary feathers at eight weeks and again at 12 weeks after they had grown back. We sent samples from both chicks to a lab in Florida for testing for polyoma and PBFD but the tests were negative. Eventually the chick that had lost its feathers died but its clutchmate is fine and seems to be in perfect health.
All the males began to pluck in 1998 and lost all of their flight and tail feathers. None of them have grown back. One female also lost her feathers. We segregated each pair and tried feather-plucking remedies with no success. Pair #2 went to nest again in the spring of 1999 and the single chick did not develop any primary feathers. The body feathers took 14 weeks to grow in but flight and tail feathers are totally absent.
During this time we also lost a black-cap in 1998 and a duivenbodes in 1999 from visceral gout. This sent me on a search for the cause. We looked at the food as too much calcium with vitamin B3 can cause visceral gout. I put a note on the lory list asking if any one had run into similar problems. As a result Sharon Casmier contacted me and she pointed me in the direction of PBFD. She suggested that I should retest these birds at a different lab. We isolated all three pairs of blue-streaks and started testing, with samples going to a Lab in Ohio. Here are the results:
- Of three pairs (#2,3,4) and one chick from #2, all were positive except for the hen of pair #2, the mother of the chick. The mother is in perfect feather. We retested her in October 1999 and she came back positive but low virus count.
- One other female (pair #3) is also in perfect feather but tested positive.
I have a suspicion that all of the pairs contracted the disease when they were at least three years old. The ages of the birds range from eight years to three years. We have had no cases of feather loss in adults or chicks before 1998.
- We were able to locate a sample from the duivenbode that was submitted for PBFD testing. The results were negative.
We have two aviary buildings, a garage, a back porch and a bedroom nursery in which we keep birds. On checking these spaces we found all but the garage positive for PBFD. The male of our youngest pair of blue-streaks (pair #5) lost all of his primary feathers. The pair was located in the garage. He tested negative by the lab in Ohio and had been regrowing his feathers. The pair are 1997 birds, the hen from our aviary, the male from eastern Canada. On retesting in October 1999, the results showed low load virus positive. He has subsequently lost his primary feathers again. We began testing the rest of our lories starting with pairs that had been beside the positive pairs. All of the tests were negative. The species tested were obis, Swainson’s, Yellow-streaks, duskies, duivenbodes and all of our blue-streaks. Before we had learned of the problem, we had sold a 1999 dusky and two 1999 green-napes to a store in Vancouver in April, 1999. The dusky died of visceral gout. The green-napes appear healthy, however, no testing was done on the two chicks. The veterinarian who did the autopsy discarded the body before I learned of the death so I was not able to have PBFD testing done. We immediately tested all of our babies including two other dusky babies (September, 1999). We also tested all of our adult duskies. All tests were negative.
We are continuing with the testing and are keeping the nine positive and questionable birds in isolation. To date we have run about 50 tests - $2500 Canadian and will be redoing most of these tests at a later date. We are also emptying each building and painting everything with a good oil base sealer. This includes the building, cages, wire etc. We have finished one building – three week’s labour and $1000 cost – and are starting on the second building –an equal amount of time and money. During this time we have been raising healthy lories, blue crowned hanging parrots, African Greys and parrotlets. All of these birds were located beside or across from lories tested positive for PBFD and were raised in our nursery, which has also tested positive. We have not seen any indication of the disease with the rest of our flock and have not lost one non-lory chick. We tested the African Grey chicks and they were negative.
From all of this information I have reached the following conclusions:
- This disease is probably a mutation of PBFD that seems to affect mostly lories.
- Lories of any age can catch it.
- It does not seem to be very virulent. Our type of caging keeps the birds isolated from one another. Still, with positive tests from the buildings you might expect more positive birds.
- Some species seem to be more likely to get it, definitely blue-streak lories.
- A bird may have the virus and show no outward signs though generally the bird does lose all primary feathers.
- Lories seem to be able to rid themselves of the disease.
- All labs are not the same. Some can detect the virus, others can't.
- The PBFD test is very sensitive and will detect extremely small amounts of the virus. There is a possiblility that the test for an environment (aviary) could read positive with such small amounts of the virus present as to pose minimal risk to the birds.
In order to get a handle on this problem we need to find out much more about how the virus acts. As a result it would really help all of us if anyone who has had or is having problems would share the information. Among the facts we need to know are the following:
- What species are involved?
- What is the incubation period?
- How long does it take for the bird to rid itself of the virus?
- What ages are affected?
- What is the infant mortality rate?
- Is visceral gout a symptom?
Hopefully by next year we will be able to attend the next meeting of the American Lory Society and have some positive information to report.
If we can gather the information, summarize it and pass it to all concerned we may be able to limit the damage caused by this disease. We need to work together or we all will suffer.
Suggestions
If you find that you have a lory which has suddenly dropped many or all of its primary feathers:
- immediately isolate the bird from the rest of your flock.
- set up a quarantine area for the bird away from your flock.
- use disposable gloves, foot bath and a coat which you leave in the quarantine area.
- feed this bird last and sterilize the dishes -1 to 9 dilution bleach is recommended. Virkon S may also work.
- test the bird for PBFD along with any other birds that were in contact with this bird. Any questionable bird should be immediately placed into the quarantine.
- test by sending a 0.2-0.3cc heprinised (1to20) whole blood sample taken from a vein to the lab in Ohio or HealthGene in Ontario.
- I would suggest that your veterinarian comes to your aviary to take samples and you potentially not contaminate your veterinarian’s office with PBFD virus.
- test the bird every three months after feathers start to regrow. Two samples taken 6 months apart which test negative should indicate that the bird is now safe.
These are my own ideas and come with no guarantee. There is at present no need to panic and destroy infected birds. It seems likely that most will eventually rid themselves of the virus.