Catching PBFD from wild Aussie birds

[vaporised]

Hi there!

I'm a soon-to-be owner of a baby Major Mitchell's cockatoo, and I'm a bit concerned about the apparent frequency of wild PBFD infected birds in Australia.
I read somewhere that 10-20% of wild sulfur crested cockatoos in South-East Australia carry the virus? This is pretty terrifying considering the sheer number of birds that hang around in my area, and I've also heard the virus survives for an extremely long time in any environment. Does this mean that my bird will always be susceptible whenever it goes outside? Especially if I let it walk around my front yard, which is visited by wild cockatoo daily?

 

[Sarahmoluccan]

That's a good question! I'm in Canada and currently I worry about the bird flu. Is there any organization moderating PBFD in Australia? I wonder if you can try and see how close or prevalent in your area? I know some Australian members, hopefully they can help you more
@Shezbug

 

[Shezbug]

There’s always going to be a risk, but to be completely honest, I don’t really know how high that risk is.
When I asked the vet about taking my bird outside with me while collecting foliage or do he can experience the outdoors she just told me to always be mindful of where I collect branches for my bird and also be mindful of where I let my bird walk and sit, she suggested to avoid places that wild birds tend to use a lot and avoid areas with any obvious cocky dust and poop.
Over my whole life, out of all the people I’ve known with birds/aviaries, I’ve personally only heard of one person who has sadly had to deal with PBFD which was with an adopted SC2 they had just got who started showing symptoms- they were recommended to euthanise asap with how bad the bird had got within the short time of them having it so that is what they did. Other than that incident that I’ve not really heard of anyone having issues with their aviary birds because of wild birds visiting.

My advice would be to speak to your avian vet ASAP and ask for guidelines on how best to keep your bird safe. I’d hate to outright say not to worry about it but I also don’t want you freaking out to the point you feel you have to lock yourselves away from enjoying life.

@fashionfobie might have something helpful to add.

 

[fashionfobie]

It is true that birds can catch it and some do carry it. However like Shez I haven't met a bird with it, within the community of bird people I know. Most committed breeders do screen for it. The testing isn't that expensive and can be done at your vet when you do your wellness exam. The peace of mind is worth it.

I suggest doing at your vet for best outcomes (since they are professionals and better at sample collection) and at the vet it may cost a little bit more. But for your reference on pricing the tests are very reasonable. At the vet it they will include the price of the test + fee for the vet visit and sample collection.

I put two links there, they are formatted differently, but both may be useful for you.

Beak & Feather Disease

Beak & Feather Testing - Paternity Tests Australia | DNA Tests Australia

If you think your birds may have beak & feather disease, send us feather and blood samples for Beak & Feather DNA Testing, and your results will be ready in 5 business days.

dnasolutions.com.au

 

[Aviphile]

I have read that the Avian Circovirus can live as long as 18 months on a surface. That is a very long time putting lots of wild birds at risk. I am not into the living fearfully, I believe in education, understanding, deciding on what I want to do and then jumping in with both feet and getting it done.

 

[Spearmint]

Are there any cures for the disease yet? And can it spread to green cheek conures?
It's also a risk for Spearmint as the cockatoo flock that comes around sometimes has PBFD, I have a bird net and I usualy catch the diseased ones, and call my avian vet to come pick them up, as they're usually in awful condition, cant fly, cant eat, covered in a mess etc.
Afterwards I always shower, wash hands and disinfect everything with F10.

 

[Aviphile]

Are there any cures for the disease yet? And can it spread to green cheek conures?
It's also a risk for Spearmint as the cockatoo flock that comes around sometimes has PBFD, I have a bird net and I usualy catch the diseased ones, and call my avian vet to come pick them up, as they're usually in awful condition, cant fly, cant eat, covered in a mess etc.
Afterwards I always shower, wash hands and disinfect everything with F10.

No cure only real treatment is support, they were working on a vaccine but I haven't heard of any success as of yet. The Schubot Center at Texas A & M does a lot of avian research.

The Schubot Aviary

The commitment of the Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) to its Schubot Center for Avian Health is exemplified

vetmed.tamu.edu

A lot of birds carry the virus and don't become sick, their immune system seems to be able to keep it at bay. Keeping your bird as healthy as you can seems to be the best prevention. Well that and good biosecurity and cleaning practices.

 

[Sarahmoluccan]

No cure yet that I know of. I believe at one point they were working on a vaccine. I'm not sure where that went. It's a weird disease as I've heard in it can have little to no affect on some birds and absolutely devastated others. Plus everything keeps evolving, the disease and birds' immunity to it. Its psittacosis disease meaning any type of parrot can get it. I've only heard of it affecting parrots, I have no know if its ever affected other non psittacosis birds.

 

[AussieBird]

Last I read there is a vaccine, but it's not available or they can't get it made. I'll have a search for where I read that.

 

[AussieBird]

Vaccination strategies for PBFD

researchoutput.csu.edu.au

Beak and Feather disease

Can't remember the exact place but these links have some info.

 

[Kassiani]

That is an abstract submitted to a conference 3 years ago (September 2019). I wonder what effect the human pandemic had on furthering that work. Unfortunately, some viruses are very hard to culture so that reliable vaccines can be made.

 

[Aviphile]

This is what the link says...

Why hasn’t a vaccine been developed against PBFD?
This is a complicated story. A vaccine has been developed against PBFD but, like most vaccines, it is not effective if a bird has already been exposed to virus. This disease is widespread in Australia’s wild bird populations and in pet shops so many birds have been exposed to the virus, most develop resistance to it but some harbor the virus for many months before they show obvious symptoms. The vaccine, while available experimentally, has not been released because it does not prevent the disease developing in these apparently normal but already exposed birds. If birds are vaccinated when they are already carrying the virus, then show disease after vaccination, complaints would be unavoidable. Research is continuing.

Exactly the reason that I said that they haven't had any success. Success would be that it was commercially available. I do know that research has been going on for YEARS and YEARS.

 

[Aviphile]

That is an abstract submitted to a conference 3 years ago (September 2019). I wonder what effect the human pandemic had on furthering that work. Unfortunately, some viruses are very hard to culture so that reliable vaccines can be made.

You are correct but it also has to do with the type of virus and how it affects the host. A vaccine would be good but a cure for already infected birds would be better. Of course that is my opinion and that is all it is.