What is psittacosis?
Psittacosis is an infectious disease usually transmitted to humans from birds in the parrot family, turkeys and pigeons. It is caused by a bacteria called Chlamydia psittaci.
Since this disease is spread by birds in the parrot family, it is occasionally found in pet store workers and people who have recently purchased an infected bird. It may also be found in farmers and slaughterhouse workers who process turkeys.
Psittacosis is usually spread by inhaling dust from dried droppings from bird cages and by handling infected birds in slaughterhouses. Human to human spread has not been reported. Waste material in the bird cage may remain infectious for weeks.
In humans, the symptoms are fever, headache, chills and sometimes pneumonia. In birds, the symptoms include poor appetite, ruffled appearance, eye or nose discharge and diarrhea. Occasionally, birds may die from psittacosis.
The incubation period may range from four to 15 days but is usually 10 days.
In humans, the diagnosis can be made by special blood antibody tests. In birds, veterinarians can diagnose the infection by conducting a special chlamydia test on a swab of fecal material.
Infection does not provide permanent immunity from this disease.
Antibiotics such as tetracycline are often prescribed. Teteracycline is effective in both humans and birds.
The disease may be severe, and result in a high death rate especially in untreated older people.
If birds are kept as pets, clean the cage often so that fecal material does not accumulate, dry up and become airborne. Current laws require that members of the parrot family that are imported from foreign countries be kept in a bird quarantine station prior to sale. During the quarantine, they are given feed containing tetracycline to reduce the risk of infection, but the duration of treatment is generally shorter than the 45 days necessary to completely treat the bird. Therefore, federal health authorities have recently recommended that breeders and importers ensure that all domestic nestlings and imported birds receive the special tetracycline feed for 45 continuous days in order to prevent the spread of psittacosis from birds to humans.
Source: NY State Department of Health