---start----

four handouts today! viral diseases, zoonoses, bacterial 
disease, ultrasound
next week's quiz: will have some stuff on radiology 
from the handout; bacterial and viral infections; not really mycoplasma 
or fungal infections; a little about zoonosis. 
quiz one: 30
quiz two: 34

quiz three: 36
total: 100 points

Bacterial infections:

the old adage - 
a ruffled feathered, puffed up bird probably has a bacterial disease. do 
not take that at face value. parasites, viruses also have this effect.


but bacterial disease is common. may be primary or secondary infection. 
because we tend to do that quickly when dealing with only a single caged 
bird with a history of illness coming on suddenly (within last 8 hrs to 
18 months, depending on owners...); owners often will try treating the 
bird by picking up something at the pet store. this can go on for some 
time. may go back and forth b/w medications. even without owner having 
given meds, vets in general sort of look toward antimicrobials as first 
line of defense. this is where we get into a fair amount of trouble - 
we're too quick to pull an antibiotic off the shelf with no sound basis 
for so doing. or we change drugs too often. in birds, this leads quickly 
to problems, if none other than secondary fungal and yeast overgrowth 
which only complicate things. try to be more cautious, wrt when and what 
you treat with abx. the tendency is often to use the big gun, strong, 
powerful drugs first which may not be the best option. if you have done 
cultures, fine. there may be other drugs less rigorous or strong which do 
a fine job for you. if you do choose a big gun first, may see resistance 
and lack of efficacy of other drugs, and you are now at a loss as to what 
drug to use. this is true for any species, not just birds, or reptiles.


also it is true that often you see it said that a particular bacteria 
causes disease x in the bird, or caused the death of a bird, when in fact 
in the literature there are few primary bacterial pathogens described in 
birds. we often do not know what is going on. bacterial epidemics are 
uncommon, except perhaps in aviaries. when only one or two or four birds 
in a home, it's unlikely for all birds to have bacterial infection 
simultaneously. a number of spp (bacterial spp) can cause complex 
problems (see list- chlamydia, mycobacteria, pasteurella, salmonella, 
yersinia) may cause epidemic like outbreaks, but not common. 

when you 
are considering making a dx of a bacterial dz, must know something about 
the nromal flora. a culture isn't helpful without knowing what should be 
there. if you culture nares, oral cavity, choanal slit, cloaca - most 
likely you will grow something. what it is is the question. is it part of 
normal flora? is it there in overwhelming number sor small numbers? is 
there a pure growth? is there no growth? all are issues that have to be 
taken into account before you finally choose to call it a bacterial 
infection or not. 

birds that are well set in a household who have not 
been ill before or exposed to other birds or new birds coming in are 
unlikely to suddenly come down witha  bacterial infection, unless there 
has been an environmental disturbance - cold stress, heat stress, 
nutritional problem, age may be a factor, concurrent disease even that is 
undiagnosed, anything causing some change in that bird's immune status, 
making it immune compromised in some way. we certainly seem to find that 
in situations where you encounter a bird like that, an adult or hatchling 
or juvenile which hasn't retained full immunocompetency yet - even 
nonpathogenic forms of bacteria may in those circumstances 
opportunistically create infections. so organisms you think aren't a 
primary or secondary pathogen can become so in those conditions.


bacterial dz and signs of same are usually fairly nonspecific. there may 
be depression, anorexia. may be discharge from nares, cloaca. may be 
diarrhea, blood tinged or not, may be swelling of abdomen if organs are 
affected like liver (hepatitis) or kidneys, or if spleen is enlarged 
which it may be. 

too often, really hot bacterial infections become 
peracute, and all you see is a bird that was fine and is now dead. or, it 
may be that it's a fairly mild infection that causes a chronic disease, 
and the bird gets better and worse and better and worse over time and 
bird starts wasting away. 

one question to ask yourself when you do a 
culture or grow an organism: is the bird clinically ill? do the signs of 
disease match a potential bacterial infection by the organism(s) that you 
cultured? or if you have a breeding aviary, are the signs you see 
reproductive problems, are there problems with reproductive performance, 
and can this organism cause repro tract disease to the extent it would 
cause this? understand - just b/c bird looks like it might have a 
bacterial disease (ruffled, hunched, etc) does not mean it has one. 


what else do you look for if you suspect bacterial dz? many of the 
infections will produce heterophilia. heterophile = avian homolog of 
neutrophil. very high WBC. high heterophil count. if bird is tending 
toward sepsis, heterophils may have toxic change, toxic vacuoles. if bird 
was in good shape when it became ill and all was fine up to then, you 
might suddenly see an increased fibrinogen and elevated globulin or TP, 
but certainly the globulin fraction will increase. and if dealing with an 
infection that causes hepatic insult then enzymes that are liver 
indicative may be increased. we'll talk more about that next week, when 
Dr Josh someone will lecture on use of hematology and chemistry in 
diagnosis. you can use the standard diagnostic techniques on birds, just 
need small amounts of blood. 

p 2 - normal flora - listed there

sometimes it is surprising that as normal flora there may be clostridia 
or corynebacteria (?) as part of the blend of organisms (but not as pure 
growth or predominant organism). same is true of gram negative organisms. 


we used to think birds only had gram positive flora in oral cavity or 
cloaca.  you should expect in pet birds only gram positives from these 
sites, however, if you find a gram negative organism you should not freak 
out. the birds you deal with as a pet bird, psittacines, small 
passerines, etc - will have mostly gram positives. if you find some 
e.coli, klebsiella - not a big deal. BUT if bird has signs of respiratory 
disease, labored breathing, is off food, dyspneic, etc - and you do a 
tracheal wash and culture out pure klebsiella, then you have a big 
problem!! consider perhaps there has been some insult resulting in a 
klebsiella infection of the respiratory tract. do a sensitivity and 
choose an appropriate drug or drug combination. 

finding e.coli isn't a 
horrible thing, unless that is all you find. remember that when you 
culture and you get this report back that there is no growth, when you 
obviously took a fecal culture...or if you took sample from an obviously 
infected soft tissue wound with suppurative discharge, you expect some 
growth - but how you took the sample, processed and shipped it, etc - can 
all be a factor. what you get back depends on what you put in.

a parrot 
presenting with slightly open mouthed breathing, ruffled feathers, in 
good body weight but just sitting on perch, dull eyed looking, not doing 
much - has discharge from nares - you go "aha! respiratory disease" and 
you culture the discharge. you culture a garden of perhaps no relativity 
to the condition you try to diagnose, though, because it may be 
contaminated, it may be mixed with stuff from food, or whatever...you can 
clean it up, clean the whole area, swab it down, wait for fresh d/c to 
come out - culture that...there are very small microswabs you can use to 
enter small orifices too, like the nares of a larger parrot. on parakeet 
you can't really do that. or if you swab the oral cavity, if you are 
looking for respiratory bug, the choanal slit is a good place to culture 
but you have to be precise, carefully restrain bird and then use the 
right sized swab and go precisely for the slit. you can get good, 
reliable information from that. 

smears are easy to do - as an office 
technique - you can get a lot of reliable information from the smears you 
make, if you make them correctly. diagnostic cytology will be discussed 
next week. if you highly suspect viral or bacterial dz - bird dies or 
comes in dead or you suspect infectious disease for whatever reason - 
from the get go when you do a necropsy, it's best to do a sterile 
necropsy rather than being unclean about the whole thing then suddenly 
realize it might be infectious and try to culture it after it's all 
contaminated. the organs are so small, if you sear them you just as well 
might be cooking them. trying to sterilize surface of organ by searing it 
usually will kill the bugs hiding inside, so it is just better to do a 
sterile necropsy, using a sterile instrument pack, etc. once it's 
contaminated, it's all suspect.

handout lists most common sites of 
sample collection - pretty straightforward. 
interpretation of those 
results. things you must consider. species of bird, if you are recovering 
a lot oof gram negatives from the cloacal swab or fresh feces from a bird 
of prey, and you have mostly gram negs, you don't worry too much b/c th 
emore carnivorous the animal, the more likely to get more gram negative 
organisms. however, if it isn't carnivorous, that's more concerning. the 
issue of fixed or permanent flora is touched upon at the top of page 4. 
even within the spp we look at, psittacines and passerines, a fixed or 
permanent gram negative flora is considered abnormal, but in Cockatoos, 
you tend to see more gram negs.

other considerations when interpreting 
cultures - age of bird, is it old enough to be immunocompetent, hatchling 
or aged bird, malnourished bird, what's the sanitation like, have you 
discerned any concomitant dzs that may be affecting the bird? 

diet, 
environment - how is it fed? bowl? cage floor? is perch over bird? is it 
eating from the dirt in the yard like a pet chicken might? soft vs seed 
diet? aquatic birds have different flora than land birds...

not all gram 
positives are non pathogenic either. 
-staph aureus
-listeria spp

-erysipelothrix sp

and not all gram negs are dangerous all the time

-e.coli
-enterobacter sp
-klebsiella (depends on site)

pseudomonas, 
salmonella, nad proteus are usually- almost invariably- associated with 
clinical disease.

some gram positives:
clostridia: part of normal flora 
in raptors, water fowl, gallinaceous birds. can cause botulism - think 
ducks. not usually in pets...but we know it can colonize the GI tract 
when there is reduced motility, and cause necrotic enteritis, gangrenous 
dermatitis, or botulism. 

lorikeets - fledgelings/under a year of age - 
can get acute or chronic necrotic enteritis. also other nectar feeding 
birds. if you have multiple deaths associated with diarrhea, weight loss, 
anorexia - consider this. necropsy findings noted in handout - highly 
related to GI tract, also associated with liver, kidney, spleen necrosis 
and swelling. liver kidney and spleen are associated with many diseases 
so not that specific but the type of necrosis you find in intestinal 
tract is more pathognomonic though still not absolute for clostridial 
infection.

birds that have skin trauma, accidentally or self-trauma or 
whatever, can get gangrenous dermatitis. skin is edematous, painful, 
discolored blue-red to black and causes death from toxemia. on necropsy 
you see emphysema, edema, and hemorrhage in the subcu, skeletal, and 
cardiac muscle. 

when dealing with ornamental waterfowl, fancy game 
birds housed in large numbers - you may encounter botulism outbreaks - 
more often due to lack of sanitation or husbandry, decaying organic 
matter attracting flies or fly strike and maggots on a dead bird not 
removed...organism is in soil, maggots feed on carcass and get toxin 
concentrated in theml...birds eat maggots and get infected. good 
husbandry/sanitation helps to prevent. the mouse protection test - take 
serum from potentially infected bird, inject into mouse, mouse will die 
if bird is infected. some vaccines have been tried; type C neurotoxin 
antitoxin isn't readily available but sometimes you can get a C/D 
combination and that is something to consider if you are dealing with 
waterfowl collections. 

other organisms:

enterococcus - part of normal 
flora of many areas of body but can be secondary infecting agent under 
some circumstances as described, may lead to septicemia. note that one 
organism in particular, e. fecalis, is primary infection for respiratory 
tract of canaries. 

erysipelothrix - if a problem, usually seen in 
waterfowl, though other spp may be infected. 

listeria: canaries, 
psittacines, others. CNS signs - in chronic phase, blindness, 
torticollis, tremor, stupor, paresis/paralysis. notable monocytosis is 
found. 

recently, there has been attention given to "megabacteria"  
which we can't culture but it's a large rod found in the proventriculus. 
most often dx on smears. seems to have predilection for proventriculus 
even in normal birds; if there is a lot of it that is abnormal. most 
commonly causes dz in budgies, cockatiels, lovebirds, canaries. not large 
birds. signs: chronic emaciation 12-18 mos long, intermittent periods of 
"recovery". some birds appear to have recovered completely, not have 
recurrence...those are in the minority and maybe original dx was wrong? 
on rads you see proventricular dilation and thinning. this isn't to be 
confused with a viral disease that also has predilection for 
proventriculus and other parts of GI tract...that occurs with a whole 
different set of birds, large psittacines, esp macaw. look for how many 
of these megabacteria are on the slide. gram stain of feces may show 
organism or may be able to culture proventriculus itself. doesn't seem to 
respond to any antimicrobials we've tried, though. so dx is sort of sad, 
you can't treat it. 

Mycobacterium avium:
all spp susceptible
esp common 
in gray cheeked parakeets and waterfowl
also common in budgies, amazon 
parrots, canaries, toucans, and other pet birds
primarily affects GI 
tract - pigeons and waterfowl get lung lesions. 
signs include chronic 
wasting, good appetite, diarrhea, PU, anemia, lameness, poor feathering, 
abdominal distension, skin and oropharyngeal masses/ulcers. 
dx: high 
WBC, cytology (acid fast stains), rads, endoscopy/bx, culture.
signs are 
referable to GI tract, liver, spleen and only rarely to respiratory tree 
except in waterfowl, pigeons. in most pet birds- chronic wasting disease 
is what you see; owner doesn't notice problem early b/c bird is eating 
well. 

rads - look at lumens of long bone - may be increased density, 
whiteness ,splotchiness. aspergillus could do that to, so if you see 
lameness consider that too.

another thing with avian TB - often elicits 
a very high white count - up to 30,000. 

two more, then a break:

staph 
and strep.
staph is part of normal flora of skin, resp, and GI tract but 
can be primary or secondary pathogen in some conditions.

strep - beta 
hemolytic strep are more pathogenic. also normal flora; may act as 
pathogen in immunosuppressed individuals. 

--break---

chlamydia:
if you 
see a lot of birds or do a lot of aviary work or pet shop work, you need 
to be aware of chlamydia b/c it can be zoonotic and it can make you quite 
sick. the old parrot disease once seen in imported birds; captive 
breeding probably cuts down the amount of cases; but we still see a lot 
of chlamydia so maybe that wasn't true... incidence of chlamydia speaks 
to how well aviary is functioning with respect to hygeine, sanitation.


psittacosis/ornithosis is the same disease - just different patients. 
that's an interesting issue - a court case was going on with an owner 
claiming to have developed psittacosis from a pet shop, and then in the 
court testimony was introduced regarding ornithosis b/c that is what the 
pathology report said and the judge threw it out b/c it wasn't the same 
disease but it IS the same disease, caused by an obligate intracellular 
organism that is difficult to grow requiring a particular type of media. 
few labs will deal with it b/c people get sick from it and it requires 
strict handling protocol. many avian spp have been documented as having 
had psittacosis/ornithosis - new world parrots, psittacines seem more 
susceptible than African/Australian parrots. in study where source of 
infection was known, 70% were from pet caged birds so potential is high, 
esp for people working in turkey plants and also moderate 10% from people 
dealing with pigeons. younger birds more susceptible than adults. carrier 
state exists.
budgie, cockatiel - common carriers. also commonly birds 
showing least clinical signs when actually infected and in a disease 
state. not always easy to tell - not all birds have lime green diarrhea 
(classic sign). maybe just more an upper respiratory dz, ddx 
mycoplasma...TB...bird may get better, relapse, etc. then consider 
psittacosis. small birds are handled mroe closely by owners - the budgie 
may then present an increased risk - these birds often sit on owner 
shoulder, drink out of owner's cup, etc. can pass dz to owner and you may 
dx it long before the MD does although of course you legally can't...but 
if listless, tired, chest pain, pneumonic signs - tell them to tell MD 
they have a bird and request chest rads. nothing pathognomonic wrt signs, 
symptoms - does cause a flulike syndrome in owner - chill, fever, cough, 
malaise, myalgia. similar to Q fever, tularemia, histoplasmosis, 
influenza...interesting thing to note is that dz in humans often causes a 
very typical "atypical pneumonia" with a distribution in lung fields 
typical for the organism - but atypical than that seen with other 
bacterial or viral pneumonias. from a standpoint of cost to medical 
profession or client who is the one infected, many casese require 
hospitalization before being cleared up. fatality is low, but morbidity 
is high, protracted. the bad things are the meningitis and cardiac 
complications with chronic human infection. transmission in birds 
probably via aerosol route. if dealing with a number of birds or if 
dealing with an aviary or zoo, and you want to try to clean it up, you 
really have to consider that all birds sharing the airspace with the 
infected bird are "suspect" and "exposed." however, just like with other 
diseases, exposure doesn't translate into "will develop the disease." but 
you should monitor them closely. in an aviary or zoo, you should 
quarantine them all for a long time. at least 6 mos to a year. monitor 
WBC, watch for increase. 

handout outlines clinical signs typical 
in..one of the things you must consider by way of ddx and reportable 
disease is when chlamydia causes CNS dz, tremors, seizures, paralysis - 
must consider Newcastle's Dz or exotic VVND, and submit to lab which can 
tell apart forms of newcastle virus. 

key organs to look at for clinical 
assessment, radiographic assessment and necropsy are the liver, spleen, 
and serous surfaces of air sacs and pericardium. those are key areas 
where the organism does much damage and can be seen. hepato/splenomegaly 
and serositis occur. airsacculitis. with cockatiels, parakeets, lovebirds 
- consider psittacosis with recurrent sinusitis that resolves/relapses 
again and again. 
tx in birds- tetracyclines - historically 
chlortetracycline used in imported parrots for 60 days while in 
quarantine. formulation, though, was such that birds did not accept the 
ration very well and therefore the birds were given very very high 
concentrations in the feed. it's now difficult to get people too excited 
about a case of psittacosis - the health department seems to have other 
things they'd rather deal with - but the disease isn't going away, is 
getting more prevalent. doxycycline seems to be as or more effective than 
chlortetracycline. chloromycetin may work but isn't' so available. doxy 
probably drug of choice.

that's it about bacterial conditions...

remember many look similar and not all birds will show all the signs of a 
given disease....you have to culture and look at signs with the 
culture...

viral diseases - 
it wasn't long ago that we had only a very 
short list of pet bird viruses. now we have a longer list. 
there are 
adenoviruses, herpesviruses, arenaviruses, hepadnaviruses, 
orthomyxoviruses, paramyxoviruses, flavirviruses, picornaviruses, 
parvoviruses, poxviruses, rhabdoviruses, and many more types of viruses 
which infect birds. 

we see enveloped and nonenveloped, single stranded 
and double stranded DNA and RNA viruses in birds. not all show 
inclusions. probalby under half cause inclusion bodies. 

as far as 
psittacines go, focus on Psittacine beak and feather dz virus (PBFD), the 
papovaviruses (polyoma and papillomaviruses), herpesviruses, and 
poxviruses, and paramyxoviruses

when dealing with breeder, pet shop, etc 
- keep in mind that the issue of different species from different 
geographic areas is important - these are general things but it is better 
for a breeder to focus on what they want to do. not good to breed sulfur 
crested cockatoos from australia and african grey and amazon from central 
america! that's a formula for poor success, possibly disaster, b/c the 
problems experienced by those birds, how they respond to viral exposure, 
are very different - some are carriers while some get fatal infections. 
best to concentrate on one geographic region - just central american 
birds or just african birds..certainly do not mix them in an exhibit 
situation. from owner's point of view - be careful of impulse buying at 
bird shows or pet shops. you may already know how often people will buy a 
bird or any other animal that is sick b/c they want to help it. sure, 
they mean well but they often buy a pack of trouble this way and there 
are no guarantees on that animal re: returning it in most cases. so try 
to counsel people to buy only from reputable people, commercially raised 
birds, even if everything seems right the whole issue of quarantine, 
isolation, is very important. fi you already have birds at home, why 
bring in a new bird and expose your other bird to something if you do not 
have to or if you know better? you wouldn't, yet often people do not know 
better. try to fill people in on things like this. tell them the proper 
precautions before introducing a new bird. at very least, keep in 
separate rooms a good 60-90 days while new bird acclimates to new home; 
even a bird who looks quite normal at pet shop, if it is harboring a 
virus or something it will get stressed by move and diet change and that 
can allow a virus to become clinically apparent. 

as time goes on, more 
and more good diagnostic procedures become available. if your index of 
suspicion is there and you get good samples....but sometimes have to use 
a special lab for these tests. 

vaccines are getting available, slowly. 
slow is operative word here, haven't really taken off but they are 
coming, slowly. hopefully eventually we can have a comprehensive 
preventive medical program for birds. 

tx of viral disease in birds is 
fairly limited to tx of secondary infections. some viruses we can tx with 
antiviral agents like acyclovir for pacheco's (herpes) when disease isn't 
severe - but you have to treat early. have to separate birds into 
appropriate tx groups too. 

Circovirus: PBFD: psittacine beak and 
feather disease:
some years ago it was noted that in this country, there 
were some parrots/cockatoos, esp the large cockatoos like sulfur crested, 
etc. that the chicks bred here had abnormal plumage at fledging or within 
the first year after fledging would get more and more abnormal feathers 
with each molt. this went on to the point where the bird had no or very 
few feathers left. often the crown was affected as well. they looked at 
this and over time found the PBFD virus. we eventually found more than 
cockatoos being affected. disease wasn't just a disease of captivity but 
birds in the wild had this also. dz is a feather/beak dysplasia; birds 
usually are immunocompromised in some way; there is no known tx, so the 
owner who wants to keep the bird despite disease has a situation which 
requires increased environmental attention - have to keep it warmer since 
bird w/o feathers can't thermoregulate well, need increased vigilance to 
prevent secondary infections with normally nonpathogenic organisms. beak 
has dystrophic growth and may require repeated trims so bird can eat. tx 
of secondary infections is prolonged and may require antifungal as well 
as antibacterial therapy. it's challenging to manage these cases. right 
now there is no good hope for a cure for these birds. we are working on 
vaccines which will be a great thing. from an aviary point of view, it's 
a real nightmare b/c you have to identify the carriers and separate them 
out. can do this with DNA probes. must isolate all noninfecteds from 
infecteds, test all offspring as they are produced from the "clean" 
group. lots of time and financial investment. route of transmission seems 
to be via inhalation/ingestion of particles passed in feces, or dust 
created by feather dander, or crop secretions that may get aerosolized; 
some suspicion of horizontal transmission; incubation period days-months. 
differential: polyomavirus, nutritional disease, endocrine disease.


another dz with feather implications - polyoma virus:
two types: budgie 
type and other psittacine type
budgie polyomavirus: sudden deaths in 
nestlings, high mortality. in older budgies, fewer deaths but progressive 
feather changes, abdominal distension, hemorrhage under skin; reduced 
reproduction capability.
non-budgie form: more subclinical - peracute 
death with no signs can occur. acute death 12-48 hrs after depression can 
occur. but mostly subclinical. 
you don't usually see these as individual 
patients; more likely aviary.
with budgies, those that survive, as they 
grow, with each molt they have more feather abnormality until they lose 
all their contour feather structure and look fluffier than normal. can't 
fly - end up hopping around. this may be "french molt" disease which used 
to be talked about a lot. 
dx: DNA probe

papillomavirus:
(papovavirus):

skin tumors - warts on feet, legs, head, eyelids


no one has found viral 
cause for this papillomatosis here which is much more serious than the 
more benign wartlike growth seen on the skin:

GI 
papillomas/papillomatosis: mucosal surfaces of cloaca, in amazon parrots 
and macaws; broad based masses, can obstruct cloaca; subject to recurrent 
prolapse of cloaca. sometimes can surgically resect, cryotherapy, etc. 

can see masses in oral or esophageal area - commissures of mouth, just 
inside oral cavity, sticking out of mouth - depends on size, location, 
number- but has an effect on ability to eat, may traumatize the 
papillomas when eating causing bleeding. 

we're still not sure if these 
are caused by viruses.

Pacheco's disease:  a herpes virus - biggest sign 
is acute death. if the animal lives for a day or two or longer, then 
there can be hepatic enlargement - viral focus is liver - lipemia, 
elevated liver enzymes. incubation under a week. few animals survive. 
some spp differ though - recall many conures are great carriers for this 
virus but rarely show signs. other psittacines who do survive it risk 
carrier status. dx: DNA probe.
enlarged yellow/brown liver is prominent, 
enlarged spleen is prominent
ddx chlamydia, bacterial hepatitis, 
polyomavirus, adenovirus
tx: acyclovir- may help birds that have been 
exposed prior to onset of clinical signs; not that helpful in birds 
already showing signs, fluids, nonhepatotoxic antibiotics


amazon 
tracheitis virus: laryngotracheitis virus common in poultry but this form 
is adapted to psittacines; signs similar to those in poultry.

poxvirus - 
two forms 
canarypox - wet or diphtheritic form, infects oral cavity, 
lumen of esophagus, trachea, down into lung. more severe form. high 
morbidity and mortality.
psittacinepox - dry form, less severe - dry 
crusty lesions around eye margins, other featherless areas, sometimes on 
tongue but still not severe form. morbidity but not much mortality

vaccinations exist for canary breeders to use
amazons more botherd by pox 
than australian or african parrots. 
support them, get them through - 
many will recover.

a few things about Newcastle disease - paramyxovirus-

the virus itself is in a number of forms - 9 forms altogether - there are 
about 5 forms that affect psittacines. widely varied spp susceptibility. 
paramyxovirus one is the common one in poultry; that form also has 
several forms and can be velogenic or neurotropic or both, this is the 
one in which exotic newcastle dz is referred to, the severe dz that gets 
into commercial poultry flocks. 
PMV 1 through 9 exist, though. infected 
birds shed a long time if psittacines - up to 85 or 100+ days. canaries 
clear quickly. 

forms most commonly encountered are 1, 2, 3, and 5. 5 is 
pretty much just in budgies. the others are seen in psittacines, 
passerines - most common is 1. 
there is some zoonotic potential, it is 
reportable, if you think you see a case you have to TELL the state and 
federal authorities who will help you deal with it. if it hits a pet shop 
or breeder there is a lot of traceback to find any shipped birds. lots of 
exposed birds get destroyed. 

note to self: get lyrics to Holman!




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