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Avian Bornavirus in Recovered Birds

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bubblelady

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Posted by Parrot Alert on FB

Avian Bornavirus

Last summer my blue-front Amazon, Fidel, flew out of my hands and was gone for 13 days. Thanks to a miracle and parrotalert.com someone spotted her on the ledge of a nearby office building, and she was captured and returned home. She's been home for almost a year and doing well. However, two months ago my other blue-front Amazon, Oscar, began feather plucking, twitching and hopping. Just last week after a series of tests and medications to control the symptoms, my beautiful 30 years old parrot, Oscar, was diagnosed with Avian Bornavirus. It's a virus that attacks the central nervous system in Amazons and African Greys and there is no cure. We can only manage the symptoms with medications. Fidel probably brought this virus home and is a non-affected carrier. It's a relatively new virus, that can incubate for four years. It is spread through oral and fecal contact with other birds. Please take all found and recovered birds in for testing for this virus, especially if you have a multiple bird household. I say this only to help and warn any bird owners, because keeping the birds separate from one another for 45 days (in case they have picked up anything from bring in the "wild), is not long enough. I would recommend testing for this virus, before it spreads to other birds in your household. The virus effects other birds in different ways - cockatoos via the brain and seizures, macaws through intestinal problems. Wild birds, like Canada Geese and Peregrine Falcons have been found with this virus, other avian species too. Please be safe,
 

Irishj9

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Thank you for the warning!

.JP
 

DQTimnehs

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Wow, that is scary! Any idea where this happened?
 

jmfleish

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Avian Bornavirus is not new and there's no way to know whether or not this bird had it before or after it got out. It sounds like what she is treating her other bird for is PDD not ABV. The veterinary community feels fairly positive that they've linked linked ABV as the cause of PDD but they aren't absolutely certain. They also know that a bird with ABV may never develop PDD. Many birds test positive for ABV and never develop PDD. I would not go and test my birds for ABV because the tests can throw false positives and even if they do test positive, it doesn't mean anything. There's enough worry behind PDD, we don't need to scare people with false facts and accusations.
 

Hankmacaw

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Ignoring the very low risk of AVB - always be very careful of allowing your domestic birds having contact with wild birds. Wild birds (and other animals) carry diseases, parasites and other bad stuff that our parrots never have a chance to build immunity to.

About all you can do (practically) is to keep a close watch on them and get them to the vet, if any symtoms show up.
 
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