Rota Virus The Changing Face of Rota. When Rota first appeared in 2017, no pigeons had any immunity against it. We are all familiar with what happened when the virus entered a loft at that time – after about 3 to 7 days birds started vomiting and developed diarrhoea. Some died. After a further 7 to 10 days, in most lofts, most birds were getting better and after another week or so everything seemed normal. Tests showed that as the weeks passed after recovery increasing numbers of birds cleared the virus from their system. Not all did however. Some remained as persistent carriers and the ability of some to race was permanently compromised.
The situation is different in 2022. Now, what happens when the virus gets into a loft is that birds have variable levels of immunity, either through being vaccinated, an earlier infection or passively acquired from vaccinated or recovered parents. Because of this variable level of immunity, symptoms vary from bird to bird. At times the symptoms can be so subtle as to be hard to detect. Infections tend to “creep” through the loft from bird to bird with different birds showing different symptoms based on their level of immunity. In Melbourne, this year, the typical experience is that this gradual spread of disease tends to persist in a loft for up to 6 weeks. Often the first symptom is an unexpected heavy loss from a toss or race that should have been routine. Experience shows that it is not possible to detect these birds by handling alone. A more reliable indicator of infection in the loft is the behavior of the birds. Affected birds are quiet and look like birds that are cold (ie fluffed and reluctant to move). Presumably this is due to the pain associated with their liver infection and the general malaise associated with being infected with a potentially fatal viral liver disease. As the fancier becomes alerted to a problem, through observation of the birds behavior, changes in the droppings start to be observed with green and watery dropping occurring in increasing numbers. The few birds that do vomit can be overlooked, particularly if the fancier does not go to the loft until after first light, due to other birds eating the vomited grain before he arrives. As the birds recover the droppings start to firm up but remain green and the normally white part of the dropping is tinged lime green. It can be a long 6 weeks as the virus works its way through the birds. And so, what should the fancier do?
How to manage a Rota outbreak in 2022 Well, the first thing is to make sure that your birds are vaccinated, this will decrease the severity of the disease. The second thing to do is to encourage your club members to also vaccinate so that the viral load that your birds will be exposed to will be less. As explained below there can be benefit in giving antibiotics. Also as explained below the choice of antibiotic is important. Apart from this it really just comes down to good care and time. There is no direct treatment for the liver damage that the virus causes. Supportive treatments help the pigeons remain as healthy as possible so that they are best able to “fight” the infection and heal. Electrolytes and simple sugar preparations in the drinker ( ie Electrolyte P180 ) and probiotics on the food (ie Probac ) help. I add about 1ml of a seed oil, such as hemp or canola oil, per kilogram of grain and then add the Probac to this mix as directed on the label. Stir it all up immediately before feeding and give it freshly mixed to the birds straight away. The liver stores vitamin B. Damaged livers don’t store this water based vitamin well so giving a multivitamin supplement containing vitamin B in the drinking water( ie Multiboost ) every few days makes sense. Alternatively a food supplement rich in vitamin B such as ID yeast can be added to the food. Yeast based supplements are doubly beneficial because they are also high in protein and therefore help to keep weight on the birds. Presumably because of the nausea and pain associated with the destruction of liver cells that occurs with Rota the pigeons eat less and some lose weight. High protein supplements help counteract this weight loss and lack of vigour that occurs with the reduced feed intake. Getting a microscopic examination of the droppings and a crop flush done can be a good idea. This will identify concurrent , particularly parasitic problems, in particular wet canker, coccidia and worms which if present will retard the birds recovery. Identification will allow a targeted treatment. Above all else, be patient. Sending birds back racing before they are fully recovered encourages disaster. Remember the birds can handle OK but still not be right. Wait for the birds to be active in the loft, their appetite to return , again be willing to fly and the droppings to no longer be green to resume racing. Expect this to take up to 6 weeks
Should I give birds with Rota virus antibiotics? When we did the Rota virus testing in 2017 -2018 we found that 10% of birds with Rota had concurrent bacterial infections. These infections were always in either the kidneys or liver and the bacteria involved were always E. coli. This means that 90% of birds will receive no benefit from being given antibiotics. With this in mind however an antibiotic treatment should still be considered in a severe outbreak
What antibiotic should I use ? Doxycycline is an antibiotic that is familiar to many pigeon fanciers but this is not a good choice when treating Rota virus birds. Doxycycline is what is called hepatotoxic. This means that it is potentially damaging to the liver in its own right. Because Rota virus damages the liver , choosing a drug that may further damage the liver makes no sense . Also doxycycline is not effective against many strains of E. coli. One needs to use an antibiotic with good action against E. coli. In most cases Sulpha AVS ( trimethoprim and sulphadiazine combination ) is a reasonable choice.
Why do the droppings of birds with Rota virus become green and watery? This is because bile in birds is bright green and Rota virus affects the function of the bowel and liver, both of which affect bile metabolism. Basically what happens in health is that bile is produced in the liver and then flows down a tube leading from the liver to the bowel called the bile duct. Once in the bowel the bile aids in the digestion process , in particular helping to breakdown fats. Once this process is complete, what is left of the bile is reabsorbed back through the bowel wall into the bloodstream. This is then carried back to the liver to be reused. Rota virus interferes with bile and fluids being reabsorbed through the bowel wall. This means that more bile is present in the droppings making them a bright green colour. Because there is also more fluid and also some mucous from irritated glands in the lining of the bowel the droppings of a bird with Rota virus become green, watery and sometimes mucousy. Also if the liver is not working well ( as with a Rota infection ), the liver cannot absorb the bile that does pass across the bowel wall into the blood. This bile then starts to accumulate in the blood. Eventually this bile is converted to a bile breakdown product called biliverdin which is excreted through the kidneys. The biliverdin excreted through the kidneys is green . This stains the normally white urine component of the droppings green and is why birds Rota virus have green urine. Droppings passed by Rota infected birds often have a noticeable urine ring. This is due to an affected bird eating less. Eating less means that the faecal ( bowel ) component of the dropping is smaller. Because the volume of urine passed is normal , the urine component is more prominent . Such droppings are easily confused with those from birds infected with PMV. The mechanism however is different. PMV specifically damages the kidneys making it difficult for them to concentrate the urine normally. In PMV infections large amounts of dilute urine are therefore passed regardless of the volume of faecal material present.
Should everyone vaccinate against Rota? Absolutely. When vaccinated birds come in contact with Rota they develop a milder form of the disease and shed lower amounts of virus. Non vaccinated birds develop more severe infections and shed larger numbers of the virus. This exposes vaccinated birds to a higher level of virus that is more likely to challenge or overwhelm their level of immunity. If everyone vaccinated then all of our birds would generally be healthier. This is why the experts in the government have given similar advice about people getting vaccinated against Covid 19. It makes no sense from a pigeon health and welfare point of view to say there is no benefit in vaccinating because my birds are going to catch the disease anyway. The Rota vaccine is very similar to the Covid vaccine in this regard – it stimulates enough immunity to decrease the severity of the disease but not enough to block infection with the virus and all symptoms. For those considering whether or not to vaccinate it is worth remembering the results of the trial that we conducted in 2018, the results of which were published in this Journal. In this trial we took blood from both vaccinated and non vaccinated birds about a month after infection with Rota. The liver values in the vaccinated birds were either normal or near normal. In the non vaccinated birds the liver values ( that become elevated with active liver damage ) were much higher and in some cases three times normal. It is also worth remembering that in 2017 when we first started autopsying Rota virus birds that we were able to demonstrate live Rota virus in the livers of some birds many months after apparent recovery. The virus was just smouldering away damaging the liver , compromising health and race performance. Any immunity is good immunity. If you vaccinate your birds you can expect to race better and if everyone vaccinated the general health of your clubs birds would improve.
Rota Overseas Research continues. Since Rota virus was first identified as a cause of pigeon disease in the world in Melbourne further research has been done. Researchers in California found Rota virus in racing and squab pigeons with similar liver pathology and similar symptoms. Also a series of outbreaks of disease in Germany, Belgium and Denmark were identified as being due to a similar but not identical Rota virus. Genetic sequence analysis showed that these viruses had been circulating in Europe since at least 2010 but had gone undetected. Further work then implicated these Rota strains as a cause of so called “Young Bird Disease” (YBD ). When these viruses were given to healthy young pigeons they developed YBD symptoms as manifest by diarrhoea, vomiting, a slow crop and loss of appetite with some deaths thus implicating Rota virus as one of the primary disease agents corresponding with the clinical picture of YBD .
“Long” Rota Long Rota refers to pigeons that develop long term complications after apparent recovery from a Rota virus infection.
They fall into two categories : - 1/ Birds that apparently recover from Rota virus, clear the virus from their system but subsequently fail to thrive. We have examined and indeed autopsied many of these birds over the last 6 years since Rota first appeared. One to three percent of birds in a race team typically are affected. Most common symptoms observed are weight loss, a general failure to do well and often a shortness of breath. On examination these birds usually have had inflammatory fluid, that formed when the Rota liver infection was active, leak from the liver onto adjacent abdominal organs notably the airsacs. Then as the body tries to heal itself adhesions ( a type of scar) between the liver and these adjacent organs form. This scarring, fluid formation and general internal damage leads to a permanent compromise of health 2/ Birds that do not clear Rota virus from their system as they “recover”. These birds continue to carry Rota in their liver with the virus causing ongoing liver damage whenever the birds are “pushed” .The virus smoulders away in the liver causing variable amounts of damage. These birds can be hard to detect in the loft and it is only when they fail to respond to training that it becomes apparent that there is a problem.
The performance of all birds with long Rota is permanently compromised.
Are there different types of Rota virus in Australia? If there are, will the current vaccine “work” against all of them? The more time that passes then the more likely it is that new strains of Rota will appear. Viruses continually change through genetic selection. Either subtle changes can occur through spot mutations along the genome or major genetic changes through viral recombination. Recombination occurs when two viruses simultaneously infect the same cell and exchange sections of their genome. Mutations are essentially mistakes in the genome that occur during replication and only persist if they still allow the virus to survive. RNA viruses ( such as Rota ) have a higher mutation rate than DNA viruses but are still infrequent with about one occurring every time the entire genome is copied. Mutation and recombinations can lead to the production of new viruses with different pathogenicity (disease causing capabilities ), host ranges ( ie affecting different species ) and cause different patterns of disease. Because of the altered genetic arrangement the immune system can react differently to the new virus. An antigen is anything that stimulates an immune response. So, this change in genome leads to a change in the antigens ( the material that the immune system reacts against ) on the genome and is called an antigenic shift. Viruses that are largely similar are said to have significant antigenic overlap. This means that the immune response is likely to be so similar that immunity against one is likely to be effective against the other. Fortunately this is very likely to be the case with any changes to the Australian Rota genome and so the current vaccine is likely to continue to provide significant immunity. The Australian Rota virus vaccine is a sub unit vaccine. One of the advantages of sub unit vaccines is that they are comparatively easy to modify if the need arises due to a significant antigenic shift in the target virus , in this case Rota.
What is “fat eye”? Is it related to Rota? “Fat eye” refers to an apparent swelling of the lower eyelid . This problem often appears in lofts concurrently with Rota virus and, in particular, as birds are recovering from Rota virus. Much has still to be learnt about this condition. The problem is essentially a paralysis of the nerves and muscles of the lower eyelid. Pigeons when they blink can only move their lower eyelid. The top lid is stationary. A few birds, such as owls, can move both the upper and lower eyelids but pigeons like most birds can only move the lower lid. In ‘fat eye’ the membrane covering the inside of the lid ( the conjunctiva ) is usually a bit red but not remarkable swollen. Testing done in Melbourne in 2017 identified Mycoplasma as a potential causative agent. Fanciers in Europe have been experiencing a similar problem and more recently fairly extensive testing has been done. In my position as Australian representative to the International Association of Pigeon Veterinarians these results have been forwarded to me. Multi PCRs have been done on these birds. Essentially a swab is taken from an affected eye and screening PCRs done to identify any pathogens that may be present. Various viruses including Picorna, Circo and Adeno virus and bacteria such as Pasteurella and Corynebacterium have been found . All of these are thought to be incidental findings and although in the eye at the time, were not associated with disease. The one consistent finding was that all eyes contained Mycoplasma. This matched our Australian finding. The strange thing about the condition is that it is very poorly antibiotic responsive. One would think that if it was just a Mycoplasma infection then drugs such as Doxy T would control it very quickly. Perhaps such drugs make the birds get better a bit quicker but with most birds getting better in just 4 to 5 days it is hard to say. Typically the time from the eye looking a bit puffy to developing the condition and then getting better is less than a week. Affected birds are obviously uncomfortable as they often have an exaggerated swallow, shake their heads and yawn. It is reasonable to think that while affected their ability to toss and race would be compromised. In some birds the swelling interferes with tear drainage making the affected eye look wet. Affected eyes often look a bit greyer or pinker than the opposing eye presumably because of the bird rubbing the eye and removing the “bloom”. It maybe that the condition is caught coincidentally in race units around the same time as Rota and therefore appears simultaneously in the loft, however. it would not surprise me if the condition is part of the pigeons inflammatory response to Rota virus. It is interesting to note that in two of the European eye PCRs they did find Rota in the eye along with Mycoplasma. It could also be that the Mycoplasma detected on the PCR eye swabs is incidental as many healthy birds also have Mycoplasmas in their eyes. Obviously more work needs to be done. For me, a logical starting point would be to see if the condition could be transferred to a non- affected bird through an eye swab in the absence of Rota. The VRPB in Victoria would be happy to undertake this investigation if funds become available. It is worth noting that on a number of non –veterinary Facebook sites they mention “fat eye” and Herpes. In none of the veterinary results that I have seen has Herpes been identified in the testing.
Can old birds catch Rota ? In 2018 some WA fanciers reported that some birds that had survived a Rota outbreak the year before , again had the disease. Testing showed that the birds did indeed have Rota again. We subsequently investigated this and took blood from a group of Victorian pigeons each month starting 12 months after infection. What we found is that all birds twelve months after infection had levels of immunity that were regarded as being protective from the disease. After this when we drew blood each month we found that the level of immunity in each bird gradually declined. Each month more birds became vulnerable to reinfection. At 13 months about 10% of birds had become vulnerable. By 18 months the level of immunity in 30 % of the birds was below that required to be totally protective. What this means is that after 12 months, with each passing month,more and more of the 2 and 3 year olds become vulnerable to clinical disease if Rota again gets into the loft. The immunity does just disappear of course, it just gradually declines. This means that ,depending on how long since they were last infected, there will be enough immunity to modify the severity of the disease. The more immunity they have , the less severe will be their symptoms. This means that when Rota gets into a non-vaccinated loft , fanciers can expect that less old birds will become unwell and their symptoms will be milder. It also means that if it is longer than 12 months since any old birds in the race loft either had the disease or were vaccinated then it is worth vaccinating them.
Rota – where to now. Since Rota virus were first identified as a cause of disease in pigeons there have been many scientific papers published on this group of virus. One paper published in 2020 by polish avian vets summarised well our current understanding of this and other viral groups that affect pigeons. Although a lot of information was presented one of the main conclusions of the paper is that we still have a lot to learn. Rota virus’ can jump not only from one bird group to another but also from birds to completely different classes of vertebrates. For example pigeon Rota virus has been isolated from calf faeces. We don’t know how quickly Rota virus’ can change, if certain strains of pigeons are more susceptible, are the sexes equally affected ( some have suggested that hens are more likely to experience severe disease ), what is the optimal time for vaccination – should the first vaccination be given before puberty, how long do antibodies persist, is their benefit in giving additional inoculations etc etc. I am suspicious that because of the pattern of Rota disease seen in some vaccinated lofts in Melbourne this year that the disease caused by Rota can be managed better. I also feel that we can do more to control it. I think it quite possible that,like Covid, that Rota vaccine immunity is not persistent and that there is benefit in more strategic or more regular boostering. Having seen what Rota can do many times now , next year I intend to vaccinate my own team initially 4 weeks apart and then continue boostering them every 8 weeks until the start of racing.
PMV in Brisbane. A recent cluster of Brisbane lofts where the birds had persistent watery droppings has had PMV confirmed as the cause. Some fanciers had mailed droppings to an interstate clinic and had been advised that their birds ( impossibly ) had a Staphylococcus/ Streptococcus infection. A range of products had been supplied to combat this “problem”. Birds were subsequently presented to a Brisbane clinic where testing showed the symptoms to be due to kidney damage associated with an earlier PMV exposure. PMV infection damages the kidneys. Sometimes this damage can be permanent.
VRPB News I occasionally get requests from vets both in Australia and overseas to provide a diagnostic protocol. In the last few weeks I have been contacted by a vet in Iceland and another in Angola – who even knew they had pigeons there. I have developed a diagnostic protocol and with the VRPB executive’s approval this has now been placed on the VRPB website at www.vrpb.org.au For those interested it can be found under “ For Veterinarians” on the home page. The inclusion of this is a continuation of one of the VRPBs aims – to provide reference material about pigeon racing that will be beneficial to fanciers , clubs, federations, members of the public, municipal councils and veterinarians.
What was he thinking? Some of the Melbourne federations allow fanciers to send trainers as well as their race birds to the early races. In a recent Melbourne club race when the race units containing the trainers were opened at the race point a bird refused to come out. The convoyers made the sensible decision to close the unit and bring the bird back to Melbourne. Back in Melbourne the bird was found to belong to a fancier belonging to a different federation. In addition, however, the bird was found to have an earlier injury. This injury had been “operated on”. It was a very poor job—healthy skin had been sown over a mass of dead infected tissue. This dead tissue was now acting like a giant splinter and was preventing healing. So , it seems , that a fancier had strayed in a bird, had failed to simply report it, operated on it ( itself an illegal act ) and without the owner’s permission, had then taken it to the club and entered it as one of his own with a view to it being taken and released hundreds of kilometres from home in an injured state. I was keen to find out which of the 30 or so fanciers at that particular basketing centre was involved. If nothing else I felt the fancier needed to be re- educated on what pigeon racing is about and also modern day societal expectations regarding animal welfare. Once the bird was returned to the owner he asked me to come around and after some veterinary intervention the bird is now recovering. But really one has to ask just what was the fancier who did all of this thinking?
The Purchase of Life Rings on the Internet A recent potential issue was highlighted by the actions of a Victorian fancier. He had purchased life rings on the internet. The rings had a series of letters ( in place of the initials of a recognised club or federation), the year and an individual number. Although the purchase was made quite innocently it raised the potential issue of buying multiple sets of identical rings. With this comes the possibility of birds with identical life rings being homed to different lofts. If one of these lofts is closer to a race point then this makes it possible to cheat , even if the birds, after doing well, are subsequently loft flown. There is no suggestion that the fancier in question, in anyway, was considering this but the ability of fanciers to buy identical rings on line has stimulated federations to review their rules. Rules now state that only rings from recognised organisations can be used on pigeons. Further to this the rings must also list the phone number of a ring secretary in case the bird goes missing. Many of the current rule books were written well before the internet was developed and so it is really just a matter of making changes to match changing times.
Correct Pathology Interpretation A fancier’s birds were just not right. He had had a bird autopsied by a nearby vet . During the autopsy multiple tissue samples had been collected for examination by a pathologist. An autopsy can be a useful way of beginning a diagnostic investigation and sometimes if you are lucky it can provide a definitive diagnosis. The pathologist had prepared a report which was forwarded to the vet. The vet then made recommendations to the fancier. It made interesting reading. One recorded change was that the bird had mineral deposits in the kidneys. The vet advised that this could be due to dehydration. A possible cause of kidney mineralisation is indeed dehydration but to me is a less likely cause of kidney damage in a racing pigeon because it would require long periods without access to water. Mineralisation usually indicates long term kidney damage . Many things can lead to this problem. In my experience , exposure to PMV when not fully immune or over supplementation with calcium are more common causes in a racing loft. The vet prescribed amongst other things vitamin and further mineral supplements as tonics. The fancier had been giving his birds mineral supplements on the food twice weekly for years supplied by the vet. Another change identified by the pathologist was congestion. This means that there was blood in the tissues. The vet described this as being possibly due to euthanasia or shock. It can also be due to poor autopsy technique where tissues are inadvertently flooded with blood and can therefore be an artefact. No diagnosis was made and a variety of supplements prescribed. It is important that reports are interpreted correctly. If in doubt it is always best to get a second opinion
Vet Questions 1/ Can I vaccinate my birds against Rota during racing.? This is not the preferred situation. It is reasonable to think that injecting 0.3 to 0.5 ml of an oil based vaccine under the skin of the neck may cause some local discomfit and perhaps transient feelings of nausea etc. Also as significant immunity is unlikely to develop until several weeks after a second inoculation it is very likely that the birds will come in contact with the virus before the vaccine has a chance to work. In the face of an outbreak or with a perceived high risk of exposure vaccination may be worth considering but it may be a case of “closing the gate after the horse has bolted”
2/I have capeweed growing in front of my loft. If the pigeons eat some of this , is this a problem? Capeweed is a noxious weed and this could be a problem. Capeweed contains nitrate and poisoning can occur if pigeons ingest significant amounts of plants high in this substance . Nitrates irritate the bowel wall and can lead to diarrhoea. In the bowel, nitrate is metabolised to nitrite which in turn is converted to ammonia. The ammonia in the bowel can be passed as a gas in the droppings or absorbed into the blood. Nitrate, nitrite and ammonia are all poisonous. Pigeons with elevated ammonia levels in the blood have a reduced appetite , are quiet and fluffed in the loft and are reluctant to train.
3/ My pigeons drink from puddles in front of the loft . Can this be a problem? Absolutely. Puddles that form near the loft can literally be bacterial and parasitic “soups”. They can be a source of ongoing overt health problems or more subtely lead to a failure of the birds to respond to training and come into form. Several years ago we had a very successful flier contact us. He usually did very well in the early races but this year his birds were really struggling. Microscopic examination of his birds dropping revealed the problem -- high coccidia counts. The birds were treated however the coccidia counts remained high. How could this be? A loft visit revealed the answer. Inside the loft was clean. The loft had a grid floor over trays. Each weekend the trays below the grid floors were pulled forward and the accumulated dropping hosed away . Once clean the trays were slid back under the grid floor. The problem was that the birds when let out of the loft had access to the areas where the trays had been cleaned. Wetting the droppings had enabled the low numbers of coccidia eggs present to become infectious over a short period of time enabling potentially very high exposure to this parasite as the birds foraged around. The answer was to concrete an apron around the front of the loft thus preventing exposure to the droppings after removal. The lofts winning ways returned. Quite apart from parasites many harmful bacteria can accumulate in puddles through contamination by dogs, wild birds etc and also through the decomposition of organic material. Nearby gutters are also another source of potential contamination .
4/ Is the chlorine in municipal water strong enough to inactivate probiotics? Years ago when probiotic use became more widespread we contacted the Melbourne metropolitan water authority about this . We were advised that the chlorine was not strong enough for this to occur. Whether this is true for other areas I don’t know. I also have my doubts about this advice. I think it best to let drinking water that is going to have probiotics added to it stand overnight. This gives most of the chlorine present a chance to evaporate. I feel more comfortable that the probiotics will still be active doing this. Having said that, my preferred method of treating with probiotics is to add them to the food just before feeding.
5/ I am from Western Australia. There is a lot of talk over here in the West about liver damage to the birds through Rota / PMV . Is there anything available to assist with this ?Also I have been told that there is a pink wormer tab called Prasivet that is very effective , Do you have it ? PMV does not target the liver ( it damages the kidney and pancreas primarily ) but Rota specifically causes damage to the liver. In 2017 we investigated this fairly thoroughly through taking blood from both vaccinated and non vaccinated pigeons as they recovered after Rota exposure. Unfortunately there is no specific treatment for the liver damage. It basically comes down to good care and time. Probiotics ( ie Probac ) on the food and electrolytes with simple sugars ( ie Electrolyte P180 ) in the water during the acute phase of the disease both help. About 10 % of birds ( only ) with Rota were found to have secondary bacterial infections. When they occurred this was in the liver and sometimes the kidney. The bacteria involved was always E. coli. There may be some benefit therefore in giving the birds a 3 to 5 day course of Sulpha AVS ( 1 teaspoon to 4L ). Ensure there is free access to pink minerals ( PVM powder )and a good quality grit ( G9 Pigeon Grit ). Tapeworm tablets such as Prazivet are available through any small animal vet under a variety of names . Another brand is Droncit. If tapeworms are a problem we recommend Moxidectin Plus ¼ ml per bird to the beak. It is much cheaper and also kills roundworms and hairworms.
6/ There is chatter in Queensland that the Rota virus has been mapped and the QLD strain ( the weaker strain ) only has a few markers the same as the Victorian strain ( the deadlier strain ). How much of this is true? Rota isolates from Qld and Victoria have not been independently sequenced and compared. So, not true I am afraid.
7/I am in NSW. Is the Aussie Rota virus and the one in the UK/Europe the same virus? And if so why did we have to make our own vaccine? Rota, as a cause of pigeon disease was first discovered in Australia. Subsequently it was identified in other countries. Rota strains around the world are similar but not the same. When the vaccine was made in Australia there were no other pigeon Rota vaccines in the world. Only later did these become available. Australia remains a world leader here—still being the only country to produce a sub unit pigeon Rota vaccine. Even if there had been other vaccines available there is no certainty that it would be possible to import them because of our strict biosecurity laws.