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Please read this before you have this happen to you! I had an aquaintance that was tired of her lovebirds and said she was planning to open their cages and let them fly unless she could find someone to take them. These were gorgeous, perfectly feathered, very healthy looking birds. Well, being a breeder of lovebirds, I was OH SO HAPPY to give them a home with me. Luckily, I was careful to quarantine these birds and test them for disease before letting them go into the aviary with my other birds. When I tested these birds, they were positive for PBFD!

I was lucky that I had kept them in quarantine and none of my original birds were exposed. I did test all birds in my aviary and all is clean, but when I think about what could have happened, I get sick to my stomach. I am posting this only as a warning to those of you who may not quarantine and test for diseases. I thank God I did take the proper steps and avioded any further spread of this deadly disease.

It still saddens me to think about the birds that I had to have euthanized, but I am so glad that I didn't just go by the appearance of these birds and assume they were as healthy as they looked and acted. I know the person that gave me these birds had no idea they were sick. I would have never guessed anything was wrong with them either. So, Please, Please, Please, quarantine and test your birds. I am so glad I did.

I hate to say it but I've been hearing about more and more cases of lovebirds with PBFD.... and most of them, if not all, were originally bought from a petstore... which they probably contacted the disease from the breeder/bird mill... it's really sad! They may have a shot that could prevent PBFD, but not cure it...

it's not fair that these diseases could wipe out our feathery pets

Hi all,

Not all petstores are the source of disease, I own a shop, and test my birds and everything for sale is negative. There are no positive birds in my breeding flock, there are no positive birds for sale, I've gone to testing each clutch of lovebirds before offering them for sale, and buyers receive their certificate showing them to be free of disease.

Biggest source of disease? Bird Fairs

There's an article on the web detailing how they took environmental samples at multiple shows, every last one was positive for something, PBFD, Polyoma, Psitticosis.

There is a vaccine for polyoma, there is at this time no vaccine commercially available in the US for PBFD. AvianBiotech will formulate one for your flock, but the purchase requirement is 20,000 doses, far more than any average breeder needs, or can afford for that matter!!

Best way to prevent introducing the disease is do as the poster suggested, be very careful where you buy, quarantine your birds, and test. No one wants to deal with the heartbreak of an infection like this, and the very best way to avoid it is to test all of your birds,an environmental test is a good way to start, then should something come back positive you can narrow down the problem. If you have multiple cages of hookbills, do a swab on each cage, or bank of cages, taking your samples from areas where dander and dust would settle easiest, Avian Biotech can ID virus DNA at an unbelievably accurate rate, they're awesome to work with, and very willing to talk to you about preventing a disease outbreak, or heaven forbid you have a positive result, they'll offer you ideas on how to disinfect and get rid of the problem as well. I can't say enough good about these guys!

windamyr wrote:Not all petstores are the source of disease, I own a shop, and test my birds and everything for sale is negative. There are no positive birds in my breeding flock, there are no positive birds for sale, I've gone to testing each clutch of lovebirds before offering them for sale, and buyers receive their certificate showing them to be free of disease.

Indeed, not all stores.... I've only heard of lovebirds with PBFD coming from stores such as Petco, and maybe Petsmart. It's good that you check out all your birds and supplies!

windamyr wrote:There is a vaccine for polyoma, there is at this time no vaccine commercially available in the US for PBFD. AvianBiotech will formulate one for your flock, but the purchase requirement is 20,000 doses, far more than any average breeder needs, or can afford for that matter!!

I've heard there's a vaccine in Australia, and now there is one in the USA as well (the USA doesn't approve of the one in Australia, supposedly, so had to create their own). Now however, there is no CURE for PBFD... Trying to look back and find those articles I can't seem to find them.... so it may be true that there is no vaccine in the USA but they were at least on a breakthrough for one?

There is, indeed, a vaccine for PBFD but it's not currently in use. At best, it's a preventative and not a cure. Quarantining and testing are the best defenses against disease. Never assume that a bird is healthy!

Being renewed to this, I went to the Avian Biotech website and they state that they can do both DNA and PBFD testing with feathers? Won't it hurt the birds to pluck them? How do you get a blood sample from them, and won't it hurt them to do that?

I am an over protective momma with hurting my babies, but would rather be more over protective and get them tested.

Have a clutch of babies coming that will need DNA, so any advise would be appreciated.

Got all my birds from breeders that are very trusted, so I am not really that worried about them, but one never knows.

Thanks all!

As I stated in my original post, Quarantine and Test all birds before entering them into your aviary or introducing them to any pre-existing flock members. I used Avian Biotech for my testing and they are very helpful with any questions you may have about quarantine time and re-testing.

As a note for all of you, I did question the person who gave me these "free Lovebirds" as to where they originally came from and at least part of them came from a bird show. Others came from a friend of hers and she didn't know where the friend got hers.

Regardless of where the bird came from, Quarantine and Test. Anybody can accidentally come across a sick bird without knowing it. Testing is the only way to be sure that your birds are healthy. As for blood collection, I chose to trim the toe nail and send in the blood sample. Just make sure you have kwik stop handy and be very sure the bird is no longer bleeding before returning it to the cage. You can also do the disease testing with environmental swabs. They are just as accurate. the only thing it doesn't tell you is the sex of the bird.

Check out the website http://www.avianbiotech.com. It will answer a lot of your questions.

Avian Biotech is the best!! I've used them exclusively for DNA sexing, testing for PBFD, Poly & Chlamydia via blood and/or swab plus environmental tests via swab that I did annually on the main bird breeding room and semi-annually in the lovebird room. They are very quick and I feel their pricing is very competitive also. At least it beats my avian vet

I also cut the toe nail when submitting blood samples. I first take a cotton ball and dip it in alcohol and wipe the toe nail to disinfect before I cut it. I don't use the cotton ball routine for simple DNA sexing, but I do use it if I am testing for disease. I also take whatever bird I am testing out of the breeding room into another room that has no birds in it and that I can disinfect when I am done testing. Hope that makes sense....

Now that I am no longer breeding, I don't keep up with testing as I have only two pet birds and they have both been vetted, etc. However, if I still was breeding, especially lovebirds, I would definitely keep the testing regimine going.

Quarantine is also a must! Quarantine all new arrivals for a minimum of 45 days (I would go up to 90 days in some instances) and test new arrivals during this time frame. Alot can be alleviated if quarantine & testing is in place as you found out. I'm sorry about the positive results, but kudos for dealing with it responsibly!

Sally
Idaho

I have to say that not all bird fairs are infected with something. There has never been a sick bird at either fair I attend in MN.

Also, birds can get past PBFD. I know a lady in AZ who had a bird severely infected and now he is clean and even setting on eggs. He is the second known surviving Lovebird with PBFD in the US.

There is a link to an article that is posted in the Bird Chatter section. Look under Article about bird marts. I started looking for articles about the diesases being spread after the Preferred Birds epidemic. At that time I googled Preferred Birds Milton Florida and found quite a few articles about not only Preferred Birds but also about bird fairs and other mass breeders.

Granted, I may now be more cautious than the average person, but I am doing my best to be a responsible breeder. I have had my close call with the healthy looking PBFD birds. I don't EVEN want to go through that again.

Unless your bird fair tested all birds, don't assume that there were no diseases there. I would have never guessed I had sick birds in my quarantine room. I could have ended up with a real disaster on my hands, if I had not done the testing. My posts are not here to argue about bird fairs or any other means of buying/selling birds and supplies. I only want to make everybody aware of the necessity of quarantining and testing.

I hope I have not "ruffled any feathers", but I just cannot stress (enough) the importance of testing vs just looking at the bird and assuming it is healthy because it looks and acts healthy. I could have just kept my mouth shut and hidden what happened to me, but I would rather share it and hopefully save others from my experience.

My thanks to Up at Six for allowing a place to post warnings and dangers for our beloved pets and breeders.

Sincerely,
Kathy B Davis

First of all, the way I understand it, just because you test for PBFD and get a negative does not mean you don't have it. A bird needs to actively have it, and be shedding it, to test positive for PBFD. So even though you can have a healthy looking bird for months, that has tested negative for PBFD, it can still be a carrier that is not currently shedding it.
Usually a stressful situation, can make it resurface and cause the bird to actively shed the virus, which will then be airborne.At this time, testing would show him to be positive for PBFD.
Adults birds are not very susceptible to PBFD and should not get it, unless of course their health is immuno-surpressed for some reason and they can catch it./
Young birds, in nest and just fledged are the most susceptible to it. This means that they are likely to catch it, and become actively affected or they can get it and not shed for years. They can get the active form of PBFD, loose all their feathers, esp. flight and tail feathers and die, usually from a bacterial infection, NOT the PBFD. The young birds can also still get the active form of PBFD, loose all their feathers then regrow them and be not only fine, but immune to it in the future, or of course become carriers.
It is my understanding also, that PBFD is not the death sentence it is thought to be, and recommendations years ago to euthanize a whole collection due to some birds having had PBFD, is not neccessary. The fact is, that the cleanest aviaries on the world with tested birds are still not 100% free of everything and can come down with some of the typical viruses. Testing esp. for PBFD is not an etched in stone kind of thing, and even if one tested every single bird of one's collection, that might be mostly birds that are susceptible to it, and every bird came up clean, you could still get PBFD down the road, because healthy birds can have PBFD and not be shedding at the time of testing.

I always think many people have a false sense of security in regards to testing for PBFD. I have heard it is more common than one would think.

Personally, I have been to people's aviaries, pet shops or bird shows and seen plenty of PBFD birds that no one would suspect have it, but it's plain as day. Missing tail feather or wing feathers are always suspect, as well as single off colored body feathers....and most of time nothing comes of it, the bird may die before any real symptoms show, or the bird recovers and becomes immune, or a future shedder.

Many of us that bred Parakeets/Budgies many, many years ago, like I did as a kid, remember parakeets with French Molt, or we called them runners. They ran around on the cage bottom because they had no flight or tail feathers, some died, some didn't, some got better. It was not something we even spent much time thinking about; we colony bred them for years as teenagers and kids, we had runners here and there, but never, did we get more and more and loose our entire collection of parakeets from it.

Some vets actually believe, off the record, that although it's an awful disease to get in your aviary, as long as you cull the affected birds asap, there should not be any further problem and that the hysteria of the past over it, is not necessary.

Of course, in the case discussed above with the lovebirds, the right decision was made, but alternatively they could have been housed in a large aviary at another location and have the PBFD run it's course, and retest again at different times.

Just my 2 cents.

You are right that the bird needs to be actively shedding PBFD in order for a SWAB test to be considered accurate. However, a blood test is accurate as it detects the virus particles in the blood stream. A positive blood test confirms that the bird has been exposed to PBFD OR is infected with it. In any event, the positive bird needs to be immediately isolated from any other birds in the home/aviary, or IMO culled from the flock.

Sally
Idaho

Sally,

Yes, you're right, I forgot about the blood test, and I agree about culling any positive birds; I was addressing more the issue of euthanizing a whole flock due to one positive bird. Also, of course, the whole flock would have to be quarantined in the case of one positive bird, meaning none should be moved or sold for a certain time period.

Anne