News about PDD

[missmadison]

I went to a talk last night by Dr. Pat Redig (leading avian veternarian and the founder of the Raptor Center - they were the ones that reintroduced peregrine falcons back to the northern US after ddt put them on the endangered species list). Anyway, the topic of the talk was PDD - which affects parrots and notable to all of us, budgies!

The good news is that some new breakthroughs have been made in identifying the virus which causes this. It is a mutation of a virus that has been affecting mammals for a long time. I will spare everyone the drawn out details, but in a nutshell: there is currently no cure for birds, although symptoms can be treated to make a bird's life more comfortable (reduction of swelling inside the bird) and dietary supplements that are easy for a bird to digest (apple pectin). There is a lot of work to be done yet before we will have a cure for PDD, but the go ahead to work on finding a cure has been funded and is just recently underway. As it stands, PDD can only be diagnosed definitely after a bird has passed but signs of it include: depression, strange head tilting, weight loss and most notably, undigested seed in the droppings. PDD is a viral disease that causes nerve damage and inflammation in the proventriculus (the part just after the crop) and in the brain. This is a great breakthrough for parrots! The future looks good for being able to detect this virus in birds while living and for the possibility of a cure one day.

Thought it would be interesting to share and also alert people to the symptoms if you haven't heard much about PDD.

[Rebeccaveggie]

A cure! Thats excellent!

[BUUZBEE]

Thats great news! I'm glad they got the funding to do more research to find the cure. Do you think the Dr. has any articles online you can post?

[missmadison]

I just did a search on him and came up with a flurry of results! It looks like he has published a lot of papers...none on PDD came up right away (My impression from his talk was that it was extremely new information). I found a good biography about him. Most of his work revolves around wild birds but he seems to have done a lot with companion birds on top of all that.

One thing I forgot to add is that there are other diseases that show similar symptoms to PDD - so if a bird shows the signs I wrote about above, it could mean other things as well (so it cannot be assumed a bird has the virus even with the symptoms.)

Taken from www.westernu.edu:
"Effect of disease on wild birds populations"
Dr. Patrick Redig, is co-founder and director of The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota and a professor in the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. He is recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on raptor diseases, medicine and surgery. In May 2000, Dr. Redig received the President's Award for Outstanding Service at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Redig is also known for his work with the restoration of endangered birds of prey, particularly the bald eagle and the peregrine falcon, which was removed from the endangered species list in 1999. In 1993, he was appointed to the California Condor Recovery Team, and was named veterinary coordinator in 1994. In 2001, he received the National Meritorious Service Award from the American Bald Eagle Foundation. In 2002, he received the Conservation Award at the Association of Avian Veterinarians Annual Conference and Expo. Dr. Redig's goal is to effect raptor, avian, and habitat conservation through the medium of veterinary medicine. He received his D.V.M. from the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1980.

[Taz the devil]

that is great news!

[mskimber]

pdd was a consideration when sangria was sick... so far changing the diet has been working but i just know he is craving some real seed!

[louara]

Thank you for posting this information. The research this doctor is doing is so important for improving the quality of life for our avian friends. I hope he continues to have successful results with his research.

[Amber]

OVC at U of Guelph is also doing a lot of research on PDD...so far they've found there may be a link with avian borna virus. if we come up with anything new, I'll be sure to post it here. Probably looking up Dr. Mike Taylor will give you lots of information as well, if you're interested.