Working with your Veterinarian Every fancier will need to consult a veterinarian at some stage. To increase the chance of a good veterinary outcome there are several things that the fancier can do. Go to an avian veterinarian In Australia the joke among veterinary students is that to be a good veterinarian one needs to be highly intelligent, good looking, good at all sports and attractive to members of the opposite sex. Although these attributes are probably useful the reality is rather more sobering with students needing to successfully complete six years of hard study before finally graduating with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree. Most graduates then go into general practice, working as the veterinarians familiar to most members of the public, providing professional care for the family dog and cat and sometimes other household pets. Other graduates take up teaching or research positions, while still others work for the government. After working for several years some veterinarians elect to pursue further, more specialised studies. In Australia, the Australian College of Veterinarian Surgeons provides this opportunity in a variety of disciplines including veterinary dentistry, veterinary ophthalmology, small animal surgery and also avian medicine and surgery. Applicants usually work for a minimum of four years in their chosen area. They then undergo a further two years of study before sitting a series of oral and written exams. Those who pass are said to have gained their membership (of the College) in that area. Those who gain their membership in avian medicine and surgery are entitled to call themselves avian veterinarians and use the title MACVS (Avian Health) after the DVM (or BVSc) qualification to indicate to both members of the public and vets that they have achieved membership of the College in that area. Most vets in general practice are happy to see routine avian cases but prefer to refer more complex cases to qualified avian vets. In fact, veterinarians who fail to offer referral in situations where they have limited expertise, particularly if this results in a poor outcome for the bird, can be subject to Veterinary Board disciplinary action. Before I retired approximately 90% of the Melbourne Bird Veterinary Clinic’s new clients came to us as referrals from general practitioners in this way. Pigeon fanciers who take their birds to GP vets should not have unrealistic expectations. Although these vets provide excellent care for the family pet they are not qualified avian vets and are not equipped to deal with complex avian cases. Such vets are often keen to help and offer good first-line advice. It is frustrating to hear fanciers criticise them. ‘There is no point in going to a vet, I know more than them’ is a common comment in some pigeon circles. In the same way that you would not expect your GP doctor to perform heart surgery, you should not expect your GP vet to provide specialised avian care. It is also important to distinguish between vets who are qualified avian vets and general vets who may state an interest in birds. If in doubt, ask your vet if he is a qualified avian vet. In Australia there are currently approximately 30 qualified practising avian vets. Because of the comparative scarcity of avian vets, not only in Australia but also in the rest of the world, it can be hard for a pigeon fancier to find an avian vet. Contacting your local university or veterinary college is a good starting point. They should have a full list of veterinarians in your area. We also maintain a list of avian vets on the Australian Pigeon Company website. Be prepared to work with your vet In the same way that it can be difficult for fanciers to find an avian vet, it can also be difficult for an avian vet to really help their pigeon fancier clients. Avian vets may often be located a long way from their clients, making it challenging for them to provide an accurate diagnosis and the correct treatment. However with cooperation between the vet and the fancier it is possible. Often at the clinic we had calls from fanciers whose distance from the clinic made it hard for them to bring a bird in. Often they would describe at length, over the phone or in an email, non-specific symptoms and appear disappointed when I could not diagnose the problem. A common statement is ‘I thought you might know what the problem could be’. The obvious answer is that we do know what the problem could be: the list of possibilities is well known, but this is of little help because we need to know what the actual problem is in that loft at that time. In many cases, without diagnostic work, vets can make suggestions as to what the problem might be but run the risk of giving incorrect advice which helps no one. An example might be the appearance of yellow spots in the mouth of a pigeon, something that may appear to have a very simple answer to a fancier but, to a veterinarian who knows their stuff, it can have many different causes and potential management and treatment options. Expect your veterinarian to require samples which may include droppings, live unwell birds, birds that have died, or other diagnostic aids such as emailed digital photo images. Getting good results from your avian vet often requires some forethought on your part. Developing a good rapport with your vet will benefit you and your birds.
Listen Most vets want to help their clients as much as possible; however your vet is a busy person. Many people make demands on a vet’s time during the course of a day and it is only possible for a vet to talk to one client at a time. Phone calls and unscheduled discussions eat into the day. Have your questions and answers ready and be prepared to listen so that the time is used well and is of value to you. Deviating from a vet’s instructions to follow advice from the ‘expert’ at the pigeon club or an on-line forum is often unhelpful.
Learn Ask the vet to explain or demonstrate the techniques used to reach a diagnosis. Ask what methods and treatments are used to control the current problem. What caused it? What can be done to prevent it coming back? Learning diagnostic methods may allow you to provide better and timely samples next time they might be required. Understanding diagnostic procedures and treatments enhances your ability to work with the vet.
Provide relevant input Resolving a health problem is a team effort between the vet and fancier. Assist your veterinarian by providing the information they are likely to need to reach a diagnosis. The age, sex, breeding status, diet, breed, length of illness, abbreviated race results and accurate symptoms are likely to be useful diagnostically. The bird’s detailed pedigree, financial value and greatly detailed race results are not likely to be useful.
Fanciers can also further help their vet to help them by: 1/Having good health management programs in place – most vets prefer to routinely check and test pigeons that appear healthy, detecting and managing a problem before they lead to bird death or significant race losses. There is nothing worse than treating an emergency that could have been avoided by routine treatment at any time in the previous weeks. Vaccination and parasite control programs are particularly relevant here. 2. Treating early – if a bird appears unwell it should go to the vet straight away. Pigeons are a prey species in the wild and have evolved to mask disease symptoms. A bird that looks sick is the easiest to catch and is targeted by the predator. There has therefore been strong evolutionary pressure not to show signs of illness. Unlike mammals, including ourselves, which show symptoms of the disease at the start of the illness, birds show their symptoms at the end of the illness when they can no longer compensate. Birds that look sick should therefore go to the vet straight away. A ‘wait and see’ approach is risky and robs many birds of the chance of recovery. Waiting to see if it will get better or wasting time treating with wrong medications is a very hazardous approach. I have had birds actually die while their owners were on the phone deciding whether they were sick enough to warrant a vet visit. I have also had owners ring after the birds have died or been culled and even after they have then disposed of the body, asking what the problem could have been. 3. Observing – the early signs of disease in a single bird or problems that affect race performance can be very subtle. Assess race results realistically. If you suspect a problem it is better to have the birds checked. 4. Not using false economy – everyone operates on a budget and needs to spend their money wisely. Diagnostic tests can be expensive. Sometimes it is helpful to consider the whole loft as an individual and a single unwell bird, even though it may be a potential cull, as a means of diagnosing and treating the whole group. Your vet should help you spend your money wisely without putting your birds at risk.
5. Avoiding DIY (Do It Yourself) treatment – most pigeon fanciers have a small medicine cabinet where commonly used medicines are kept to treat the common diseases. Vets prefer a quick phone call or email from a client to check that what they are thinking of doing is correct. Incorrect treatments can make matters worse or make subsequent diagnostic efforts more complicated. Incorrect treatments can also delay correct treatments and give disease processes a head start. I have even known of some fanciers who have operated on their own live conscious birds. Most fanciers are very experienced with pigeon husbandry but their knowledge of disease and diagnostics can be blurred by their own intimacy and concern for their birds as well as incorrect advice from fancier ‘experts’ or on the internet. Treatment should be based on diagnosis, not suspicion.
6/ Understand the basic diagnostic process It is always a matter of matching the degree of diagnostic effort to the severity of the problem. With most pigeon health issues the usual diagnostic protocol that is followed is :- 1/ Live bird tests — the vet needs to take a history and develop an understanding of the problem. An unwell live bird is thoroughly examined. Samples are taken from the crop and droppings are collected for microscopic examination.
2/ If this initial examination and testing suggests a particular problem, samples can be taken to test for specific disease. These may include swabs from the throat or droppings for PCR ( ie DNA ) tests for viruses and other disease causing agents. Currently PCR tests are available for Rota, PMV, Circo, Herpes, Chlamydia and Mycoplasma.
3/ Blood can be drawn for a biochemistry ( organ function tests) / hematology ( red and white blood cell counts ) testing. These tests give valuable information about nutrition, the level of training and overall fitness, hydration, organ function, the immune system and infection.
4/ If the problem is sufficiently severe an unwell bird may be selected for humane euthanasia and autopsy. The 2 very important things for fanciers to remember are that ;- a/ the bird must be autopsied within 4 hours of death . Later can lead to early decomposition changes and altered bacterial populations which decrease the diagnostic value. Often it becomes impossible to make an accurate diagnosis once 4 hours has passed. This means that either a sick live bird must be presented to the vet or the presented bird is definitely known to have died in the previous 4 hours before arriving at the vets. b/ If a bird dies at home do NOT freeze it. Freezing destroys everything required for diagnosis except samples for viral testing.
5/ Unless the cause of the problem is readily visible at autopsy it is standard to collect tissues for microscopic examination, swabs for bacterial identification and also swabs from some internal organs for PCR testing. Usually a second set of tissues are collected and frozen in case they become necessary for virus identification. These are then available for testing if required.
Everything costs money. It is my experience that most vets are driven by professionalism rather than making money. To the professional vet it is important that the client’s money is spent wisely and so the vet will guide the diagnostic process so that an answer is reached in the most economical and expedient way.
Some recent experiences. The aim is not simply to do tests but to solve the problem. I have had instances where fanciers submit samples to a particular lab. Sometimes that labs aim is to simply rule out certain serious or notifiable diseases. It’s a bit like taking a sick child to the doctor and tests are run. The doctor then advises that the child does not have polio, AIDS or Covid. When you ask what the problem is, he says he does not know but can tell you that the child does not have polio, AIDS or Covid. I have seen situations where fanciers have taken one bird after another to the same lab to have the same tests repeated again and again. You need a vet to guide the diagnostic process so that the appropriate tests are done based on earlier results so that an answer can be reached. It is important too that fanciers have a realistic expectation of what a vet can do. I recently had someone send me a photo of youngsters on a landing board and say that some had died. He wanted to know what could be the problem. A surprising number of fanciers get sick birds, cull them, dispose of them and then ring. When I say that we will need certain samples for diagnosis they announce “Oh, I’ve killed and buried them.” I just wonder what they expect. Other fanciers say things like, “it looks just like the picture in your book” or “it’s the same problem that was in Melbourne”. It seems that some fanciers don’t seem to realise that vets are there to help fanciers with their birds health. I received this email last week “Hey, I was told to contact you guys about getting doxy t? I’m having a eye cold and respiratory problem in my loft and was given some doxy t to try and it worked on the ones I tried it on. So was hoping to purchase some off you guys so I can treat the rest”. I would have thought that a good question might have been “I had some birds with eye cold. I treated them with DoxyT and they got better. Would it be a good idea to treat the rest?” or perhaps, “What causes this?, How can I prevent it happening again” etc. Vets are there to help. Working with them will enable them to do a better job and will also help you maintain your birds health.
I had an interesting case in March that illustrated this point. A fancier in Brisbane had a stock hen sent up from Sydney. He duly paired up his 25 pairs of stock birds including this hen. All of his own birds were up to date with their PMV vaccinations. As the resultant youngsters started to be weaned some got sick and died. In the end 7 of the approximately 150 youngsters got sick and some died . Six of these were bred off the hen from Sydney. The fancier thought that it might be a genetic problem. Two of the unwell birds were taken to an avian vet who autopsied them. Tissue samples were collected and forwarded to a lab for examination. The examining pathologist identified changes in the tissues that were most likely associated with PMV and so a PCR ( DNA ) test for PMV was done . This however returned a negative result. So what was going on? When the fancier in Sydney was originally questioned he said that all of his birds were vaccinated against PMV. On later and more detailed questioning it turned out that his stock birds were in fact overdue for their shots. PMV only persists in recovered birds for up to 60 days. This means that even though birds may still have damage in their tissues caused by this virus , if they are tested specifically for it, after 60 days , they will test negative. The final answer was that PMV had got into the Brisbane loft around the time the youngsters were weaned. Birds bred from the Brisbane stock birds had some passive immunity from their vaccinated parents which was sufficient to protect all except one of them until they received their own first vaccination. Birds from the “Sydney” hen did not have this protection and caught a fatal dose of the virus before they could be vaccinated. Even though their pathology on testing was consistent with PMV, the virus had already cleared their system by the time they were tested because it was over 60 days since they had the infection. The final diagnosis was PMV due to a flaw in vaccination protocol. It would have been very hard or perhaps impossible to identify this as the problem without testing but fortunately the solution to the problem was a simple one.
VRPB news Please note this update is not an official VRPB communication but simply a summary of events over the last 6 weeks. The VRPB is made up of a group of Victorian fanciers that have each been elected by the organisation that they belong to, to represent that organisation . All voting is proportional based on the number of members in each organisation. It is a very democratic system. The VRPB decided that Victoria should be represented on the ANRPB and nominated our secretary Marc Tenaglia for this role. The ANRPB met in February and the VRPB is pleased that Marc’s position as Victorian rep on the ANRPB has now been formalised. Fanciers will recall that I discussed in the February journal an apparent increase in Herpes virus infections in Australia. Since then several further cases have been diagnosed in individual fanciers lofts. Over the last 6 weeks quite a few things have happened regarding this. As discussed in the February Journal, the plan was to run about 60 PCRs to estimate the prevalence of this virus in young pigeons and then if the problem turned out to be common to investigate the potential for cross immunity with the two poultry Herpes virus vaccines in Australia. An approach to the ANRPB to provide funds for this testing was considered. Apparently the matter was briefly discussed at the ANRPB February meeting but no formal application for funding was made. After this meeting the VRPB initiated a national campaign to raise funds for the Herpes PCR testing by sending an email out to various state organisations throughout the country. $4,800 is needed for the 60 PCR tests that cost $80 each. So far several organisations have donated in response to the VRPB email. The VHA and WPF have each donated $500. The VPO donated $450 and the ANRPB donated $500 from a general operation account. The need for funding and testing developed some urgency in late February / March when I was approached by a research team at Deakin University. They were keen to do a “Proof of Concept” for mRNA vaccines in chickens using pigeons as the model. They asked if I would like to collaborate with them. They suggested that PPMV might be a good agent for the study. I pointed out to them that we already had a safe effective registered vaccine for this disease. They then invited me to suggest a pathogen. Because of it’s topicality and apparent increase in incidence both here and overseas I suggested, Herpes virus. The plan was to find out if Herpes was sufficiently common to warrant this investigation. To do this ,the Deakin team would review the literature and we would run the 60 Herpes PCR tests . The Deakin team applied for funding from a Poultry Hub grant which meant that their investigation into the potential use of mRNA vaccines in birds would cost the pigeon sport nothing. It also meant that if Herpes did become a problem there would be the opportunity to work with them through an ARC linkage grant to develop a vaccine. Unfortunately as April approached I had to report to them that not only did we not have any results but that we had not done the testing and in fact had not even been able to obtain funding. This was disappointing because this matter had been discussed since November 2021, nearly five months earlier. The Deakin team could not wait any longer and so decided in the end to do the Proof of Concept on a chicken bacterial mRNA vaccine. The PoultryHub people were happy with this decision because it related more directly to the benefit of chickens. Even so, it was a shame and an opportunity lost for the Australian pigeon racing community. Research that would benefit us and cost us nothing does not happen too frequently Hopefully if there is a “next time” we will have some money available, act a bit quicker, and be able to take advantage of an opportunity. If funding does become available we will still do the Herpes PCR testing, however, to see just how common the problem is. There will be ways to minimize the diseases impact if we know it exists.
Because we have been unable to establish funding promptly this has raised further concerns regarding the testing. It is now becoming late in the breeding season. Young pigeons when they become infected with Herpes virus shed the virus in their saliva ( and are therefore positive on a throat swab). As the birds mature, those that survive become asymptomatic carriers. The virus is not always in the throat but rather carried in the liver and shed intermittently in the droppings. This means that birds which actually have the disease could return (false) negative results on a saliva test. I expressed this concern to the University of Melbourne, which would be running the PCR tests. They agreed that this was a problem. The test can be run on droppings but the difficulty is that the current saliva test has not been fully tested on droppings . It is likely now that even if we do get funding that unfortunately the testing will have to be delayed for a year until young pigeons are once again available.
I have spoken to Dr Chris Morrow at Bioproperties. He has advised that the possibility of any cross immunity from the two chicken Herpes vaccines is at best, remote. The VRPB meets again on the 27th March. Minutes of the meeting will be placed on the VRPB website and matters arising will be discussed in the next (ie May ) Journal
Current Veterinary Issues As I see it we have two immediate issues that need to be considered at both a state and national level:- 1/ the high mortality rate and catastrophic losses associated with OLRs. I don’t think that it is reasonable or the best option for each OLR operator to independently try and solve this problem. This approach just doubles up on time, effort and costs. OLRs operate in most states and are supported by many fanciers across state borders. Failing to solve this problem tarnishes the reputation of the loft operators, damages the sport generally and runs the risk of a visit by an Animal Welfare Officer from the RSPCA or local council and the risk of prosecution. To address this issue I think funds should be made available to ;- a/ investigate the principle causes of these mortalities through a logical and thorough veterinary diagnostic process b/ conduct a mini immune trial to see if the proposed alterations to the PMV vaccination protocol do actually offer some protection and if so at what level. I have already put on the VRPB website a proposed protocol to minimise health issues for OLR managers. These help but more needs to be done. The current proposal is that birds destined for OLRs be vaccinated in their home lofts at 3 weeks and then again at 5 weeks and then shipped. This was discussed more fully in the February Journal
2/ Investigate emerging diseases that have the impact to affect bird health and racing nationally. Herpes virus ( causing Inclusion Body Hepatitis) is the concern of the moment. As explained the starting point would be to find out just how prevalent the problem is. As also explained this can be done by running some pan Herpes PCRs at the University of Melbourne. The University has offered us a discounted price of $80/ test and we would need to do about 60. This investigation is currently stalled through lack of funds.
SAHPA Event The SAHPA and its president, Greg Hamilton, organised a great evening on the 9th March. Held at Chasers Club, about a 20 minute drive from Adelaide, the evening was made up of two presentations. One by well- known and very successful fancier Len Vanderlinde and the other by myself. Finger food was provided for the approximately 80 fanciers in attendance. Len has won the QPF averages most recently in 2017, 2018, 2019 ( this was the first time this had been done and on 3 different lines! ) and then again in 2021. Len described the methods he used to achieve such success. His presentation was very interesting and informative and delivered with a passion that maintained the audiences attention. In 2021 he had one hen which was 2nd Fed, 2nd Fed ( again ), 6th Fed and also gained another top 10 placing. Truly a quality performance. I spoke about vaccinations and some issues currently facing our sport in Australia. The event was very ably compered by Ray Fewings while Gavin Harris was in charge of IT and made sure that everything went off without a hitch. An educational and entertaining night. Well done SAHPA.
How can we improve as a sport ? Regional clubs and federations need to look after the basic mechanics of running those organisations. It is the responsibility of any state or national body to look after issues that affect our sport more generally. Now is a time for strong leadership in this regard. There will always be issues that arise . Most recently there was Covid. There seemed to be confusion amongst fanciers and a good amount of misinformation that was spread regarding tossing. As far as I am aware Victoria was the only state that released guidelines for its fanciers. Without state and nation wide issues being dealt with how can the sport progress? So what are some of the current issues that these bodies should be concerned with . I can think of several 1/ Fancier education and the provision of guidelines. Fanciers need to be made aware and be given authoritative and definitive advise about issues that relate to them. Two recent examples relate to a case in Western Australia and the use of “Poovax”. a/ In the last few months there has been a case of animal cruelty involving a pigeon fancier in Western Australia. Fanciers will recall that in an earlier journal I reported that a Western Australian pigeon fancier had been taken to court for supposed animal cruelty by the RSPCA. The fancier had had an injured bird return to his loft. He took it to the local vet for surgical repair. After receiving the quote for this he advised the vet not to proceed and that he would take the bird home and do what he personally could for it. The vet advised, correctly, that it is illegal for a lay person to operate on their own animal and advised that the bird should be left with him for euthanasia if surgery was not to be done. The fancier refused and took the bird home. After this the RSPCA arrived at the fanciers home, confiscated the bird and took the fancier to court on charges of animal cruelty. The end result was that after a day in court , the RSPCA offered that if the fancier agreed to cover his own court costs they would not proceed. The fancier agreed and paid the $5000 in charges. I am sure that the RSPCA thought that the pigeon fancier was not an innately cruel man ( and I am sure that he is not ) but I am also sure that the RSPCA achieved its aim. The message is load and clear -- fanciers must not operate on their own birds. The law sees no difference between a dog, cat or pigeon in this regard. They are all vertebrate sensate animal and it is illegal for anyone except a vet or similarly qualified person to operate on them. Fanciers need to be aware that they risk prosecution if they do this. Most people if they looked over their fence and saw their neighbour operating on their own conscious dog would be horrified and think this terribly cruel. The law and most members of the public see no difference between this situation and fanciers operating on a pigeon. Many fanciers may not be aware that this is unlawful . It is the job of state and any national body to make sure that their members are aware of laws that affect them. I am sure that many fanciers will believe that it is better to do home surgery rather than cull a bird but the law does not agree. With this knowledge fanciers will be able to make a more informed decision as to how they wish to proceed b/ Use of Poovax In 2017 before the Rota virus vaccine became available, a mild strain of Rota virus was identified in Brisbane . Birds were deliberately exposed to this in order to stimulate immunity in them and protect them from more serious disease. This activity met a mixed reaction and was later condemned by the government. Fanciers need to be aware that it is illegal in Australia to deliberately expose an animal to a disease causing agent knowing that that agent will make the animal sick or indeed lead to its death. This is particularly relevant now that we have a vaccine as an alternative. Fanciers need to be aware that they risk prosecution by doing this
2/ The public image of pigeon racing This week on American television they ran a story about “Armando”, the pigeon that was sold for , at that time, the world record price of US$ 1.4m. The presenter, James Corden, made a joke of it saying that he thought , before this story, that the highest price ever paid for a pigeon would be US $ 6. This comment was met with much laughter. The story then moved to a reporter in the street surrounded by feral pigeons. She explained how many people thought of pigeons as “rats of the sky”. Just the fact that a story about a pedigreed sporting animal moved to feral animals of the same species and then used the overused and almost invariably quoted “rats of the sky “ term shows how far removed from reality and commonly held are the thoughts of the majority of the public about pigeon racing. We need some initiatives to address this .
3/ Funding The ANRPB and the VRPB currently are not quick response groups. The example discussed above of trying to get some money for some routine Herpes PCR tests illustrates how difficult it can be to obtain funding. Yet, without money , how can we get things done. I was not personally in favour of the decision by the VRPB to make an appeal nationally for funds to be donated. To me, it seemed unfair and unreasonable to ask fanciers to donate again when funds in a “Disease Management Fund” were already held by the ANRPB. I thought it would be better to apply to access these funds. It also seemed a bit strange to me to have a state body, the VRPB, dealing with a national problem at a national level. No doubt issues will continue to arise that require funding. My personal feeling regarding the funding of national veterinary issues is that we have $64,000 held by the ANRPB. This money is not invested and so therefore its buying power is declining each year. It is currently being held to address a “disease management” issue that may or may not appear in the future. Yet we have current disease management issues that are not being dealt with through a lack of funding. As far as I see it we have 5 funding options in Victoria :- 1/ Ask for donations from Victorian fanciers 2/ Levy Victorian fanciers perhaps as a VRPB membership fee. In, what I think is a great initiative, the VPO has decided to levy each member $10 /year to fund the VRPB. 3/ Approach Pigeon Racing Victoria . The PRV hold some Victorian fancier funds and may be prepared to release some. 4/ A squeaker /stock bird – the old pigeon fancy staple. I am personally not in favour of squeaker sales because they amplify disease but a vaccinated old bird sale is an option 5/ Approach ANRPB. An organisation ( such as the SAHPA, VHA or QPF ) could make a representation to the ANRPB for funding or better still the ANRPB could simply identify a need for funding and being proactive , volunteer the funds. I think it would be good if, like the VRPB, the ANRPB had both a veterinary and legal consultant on the Board. No ANRPB members have any qualifications or training in these areas and it is perhaps not reasonable to expect them to make decisions regarding these matters. Receiving professional advice may expedite the decision making and funding process. No doubt the pros and cons of each option will be much debated. I am hoping that some fanciers may have other suggestions.
4/ Managing pigeon health issues Pigeon health issues that affect fanciers nationally need to be addressed in a co- ordinated way. The issues regarding OLRs, altered vaccination protocols and emerging diseases are relevant here ( as discussed earlier)
Pigeon Pox vaccine availability Pigeon Pox vaccine is currently not available in Australia. The vaccine that is currently used was originally made by Arthur Webster Pty Ltd in the 1950s. It was then taken over by Inca and then CCD and then Fort Dodge. Fort Dodge was bought by Pfizer in the early 1990s and decided to clear its low volume bird vaccine lines. I purchased the seed and technology to make the vaccine at this time. Since then Bioproperties in Melbourne have been making the pox vaccine for the Australian Pigeon Company. In late 2021 an APVMA audit was done which showed that the pox efficacy data still related to the early 1990s and as such was 30 years old. They advised that in order to continue to manufacture and sell the vaccine further data would need to be submitted. I have approached companies to do this work. Quotes have ranged from $30,000 to $50,000. I have kept the price of the pigeon pox vaccine the same for 30 years. It is a very cheap vaccine. The vial , costing $85 does 500 birds or more. I am not so interested in making money but are more interested in keeping the vaccine available. At the moment we are hoping to get an emergency permit so that we can sell stock that has already been made and in the longer term to obtain a Minor Use Permit so that manufacture can recommence. I will keep fanciers aware of progress.
Ask the Vet.
1/I’m enquiring about Mycoplasma vaccination for pigeons . I have had numerous fanciers ask/tell/question me about administering a Mycoplasma vaccination to their pigeons via the eye using an eye dropper. Is this possible. Can we vaccinate our birds against Mycoplasma? I am aware that Mycoplasma vaccines are available for chickens. Mycoplasmas are a strange type of bacteria that don’t have cell walls. There are Mycoplasmas that live on the membranes lining the respiratory tract in both pigeons and chickens. Some can cause disease, other don’t. Birds become infected with Mycoplasmas from their parents. In chickens, eggs can be hatched in incubators which means chicks do not come in contact with their parents. These chicks are then inoculated with Mycoplasma vaccines. The vaccines are prepared as drops that can be applied to the nose, eye or throat. These vaccines are live harmless strains of Mycoplasma that quickly colonise the respiratory tract and prevent disease causing strains from becoming established. This process is called competitive exclusion. Even if there was a Mycoplasma vaccine for pigeons ( which there is not) this vaccine would need to be given to the pigeon chick before it came in contact with its parents. This is not practical. Fortunately Mycoplasmas in pigeons usually only cause disease if the birds are severely “run down” and so in most instances just simple good care keeps the problem under control. If however they do cause disease there are antibiotics that do treat them.
2/ Some of my young birds have developed some large black/grey blisters on their body. They bleed easily if the birds knock them. What is this? This is most likely a form of pigeon pox called a “basilioma” by some veterinarians. The vesicles , blisters or scabs caused by pox virus can vary in appearance depending on where they are located and how the virus was transmitted. This type is usually located on the body and is thought to be introduced into the skin by blood sucking insects such as mites. The diagnosis is confirmed by examining affected tissue under the microscope where viral particles called Bollinger bodies can be seen. Like other forms of pox the disease runs a natural course of 2 to 6 weeks. Spread in the loft can be controlled by vaccinating non infected birds against pox with pox vaccine (when available)
3/ I read recently that a genetic mosaic or chimera should be kept for stock. Is this true? What is a chimera? I was told reds with black flecks are chimeras. Is this true? I am very confused after reading and are hoping you can clarify this for me. Chimeras are the opposite of identical twins. After an egg leaves the ovary it is fertilised by a sperm and forms a cluster of cells called a zygote. This zygote eventually develops into a new individual. If the zygote splits in two , the result is identical twins. If two zygotes fuse together the result is a chimera. A chimera is therefore a single individual that contains the genetics of 2 individuals. They have no advantage as breeders over any other birds. How they breed will depend on which zygote contributed the cells that developed into the gonads. A red with black or brown specks is not a chimera. These birds contains the genetics of a single individual. The flecks are simply part of this colour pattern with the colour of the flecks being sex linked.