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Hi Anne:
I wouldn't necessarily euthanize an entire flock due to one positive bird either but I would remove the positive bird from the others anyway and cull that one. I do agree that the flock shouldn't be moved/sold/bred in the interim. I would close the aviary, take down breeding boxes, and retest in 90 days. Any positives at that point would then be culled and so on. Once everyone tested negative via Blood on at least 2 tests run 90 days apart, then I would probably consider it safe to sell/move/breed. But let me tell you, I would be testing any chicks produced at least for awhile. This is just my opinion though.

Sally

I currently have 3 Abyssinian Lovebirds that all survived PBFD. They belonged to a breeder friend of mine, who got them via import, and they came through quarantine with the disease but no visual signs of it. My friend did the appropriate testing and the test came back positive. He continued to keep them in quarantine and it took about a year for a blood test to return negative. Had I not seen the test results for the last negative test, I would never have accepted the birds here. To this day, there are no visual signs that the birds ever had PBFD. Most birds don't survive PBFD but some do. Testing is the key to keeping your own birds safe.

I've always heard that such cases of "survival" were either the results of false positive testing or they were chicks who sero-converted. Jean Pattison was (still is ) very bold to speak out early and often about her nightmare experience with PBFD in her breeding aviary: http://www.oldworldaviaries.com/text/mi ... ttison.htm . Linda, do you feel that your imported lovies might have had false positive test results initially? Perhaps in the early days of testing? I have no idea when that test became available. It was considered reliable by the mid-90s, but since yours were imports, maybe your history is prior to that time

These birds were inported about 3 years ago through a captive breeding program and spent a month in quarantine in San Ysidro, CA quarantine station. They were not tested for PBFD before or during that time. They were quarantined again once they got here and the tests showed that all of them were on the recovery side of the disease. I was surprised, as there were no visual signs of the disease and, to this day, the only thing that you can see is one or two odd feathers on the shoulders of their wings. Tests have all come back negative.