The Hidden Secrets About A Common Parrot Disease

Parrot lovers should all be educated about of Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD). This tragic disease strikes cockatoos, cockatiels, budgerigars and a number of other species.

The first symptoms are often malformed feathers or, in those species that create feather dust, cockatoos and cockatiels, the lack of feather dust.

Psittacine beak and feather disease was first described in 1975 by Doctor Ross Perry, a practicing veterinary in Sydney, Australia. Much speculation about the causes of PBFD occurred in the early years with some veterinarians blaming sunflower seeds; others believed in-breeding was the root cause of PBFD.

Doctors David Pass, Ross Perry and Sarah Wylie proved that PBFD was caused by a newly-identified virus, psittacine circovirus. The psittacine circovirus only causes disease in psittacine parrots. From research to date, it is indicated that no other avian or animal species is susceptible to PBFD.

This simple virus infects and kills the cells of the feathers and beak by attacking the immune system. As a result of a compromised immune system, many parrots with PBFD die as a result of opportunistic bacterial, fungal or viral infections. If this is not the case, parrots with chronic disease eventually have difficulty eating, lose weight and die.

PBFD has been confirmed in most species of cockatoos, lorikeets, ringneck parrots, budgerigars, and several other species. Research at the University of Sydney found the disease widespread in wild cockatoos and other psittacine parrots. They also proved a vaccine can prevent the disease if given at a young age.

PBFD has very distinct and unusual features allowing most diagnoses to be accomplished by a veterinary exam alone. While PBFD is more prominent in young parrots, parrots of all ages can be infected. A parrot with PBFD will develop abnormal feathers which grow in replacing normal feathers that are molted. Even when no other symptom is present, a parrot with PBFD can gradually lose its feathers without exhibiting other signs of illness.

In cockatoos and cockatiels with PBFD, the powder-down feathers are often the first affected. PBFD-affected feathers are fragile and often develop an abnormally thickened outer keratin sheath, making the pinfeather casings to fail to disintegrate or difficult or impossible for the parrot to preen off. As feathers are destroyed by the disease, bare areas often appear; the feathers that do grow in look dull in appearance.

Because the disease is common in cockatoos, the lack of proper feather powder production will result in the beak becoming shiny instead of dull grey. Abnormal feathers are usually short and display one of several characteristics such as: fault lines (often called stress bars), thickened feather sheath, or blood attached to the quill.

The first clinical sign in parrots with green plumage (such as Indian Ringnecks) may be yellow feathers appearing after green feathers are molted. This may be the result of changes in the feather structure.

Acutely ill parrots sometimes have green diarrhea, often found to be opportunistic infections from secondary bacterial or Chlamydia infections. PBFD can cause hepatitis, particularly in cockatoos. Some parrots die of hepatitis without ever having developed obvious feather lesions.

Psittacine circovirus can be detected in affected feathers by veterinary testing of feathers or by identifying antibodies in the blood, serum, plasma or yolk. Feather testing is currently the best method for detecting circovirus. It is a valuable tool for detecting virus in feathers, liver and feces. Feather testing is preferred since acutely affected parrots may not excrete enough virus cells to be detectable or they may have virus in their feces only intermittently (known as virus shedding).

Blood testing where PBFD may be indicated in individual parrots is often used. The antibody, if present, indicates the parrot has been exposed to the virus. Exposure does not necessarily mean that the parrot will develop chronic PBFD, however. Other new tests are in development for easy identification of PBFD parrots, but they are not yet available widely.

Most parrots which have been identified as PBFD-positive succumb to PBFD before two years of age. Regardless of age, every Psittacine should be considered susceptible to infection. The good news is that it appears to require long term exposure to the virus and stress to generate infection in adult parrots. Spontaneous recovery from PBFD has been shown to occur at times; even some of the acutely affected parrots have been shown to recover. But they are, by far, the minority.

Be advised: to avoid the heartbreak of PBFD, maintain a closed flock and purchase parrots from PBFD-free aviaries. Also, breed parrots in quarantine, avoiding exposure to outside parrots. PBFD is, however, quite difficult to quarantine. Carrier parrots may appear normal but can produce diseased young.

A vaccine created from dead virus has been developed. In normal healthy parrots, this vaccine will stimulate immunity to the virus. Unfortunately, the vaccine can not be used to treat parrots that already have been infected. In test cases where this method was studied, it was found that use of the vaccine resulted in the disease progressing more rapidly.

Vaccinate parrots at an early age; nestlings as young as 14 days of age can be vaccinated. After the initial vaccination, a booster shot should be given one month later. Following vaccination, the parrots should be examined at six month intervals until they reach three or more years of age. Do not allow parrots to breed within one month of having received a vaccination.

Those who own parrots with this disease should be very, very cautious not to allow the disease to spread to other parrots because there is no way to tell if a parrot is shedding the virus at any specific time. Some people are able to enjoy their parrots that have PBFD and, with caution, allow them to live quite lengthy lives before the disease causes the parrot’s demise.

If you own a PBFD-positive parrot, use extreme caution about going around other parrots. Love your parrot for the love it has to return; destruction of a single pet parrots is not necessary if caution is practiced.

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