PARROTS' DISEASE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 23, 20 October 1937, Page 11

PARROTS' DISEASE

-Press Assooiation.)

Fatal Case Occurs at Auckland DOCTOR'S WARNING

(By Telegrapb-

AUCKLAND, Last Night. The symptoms discernible in a fatal case of pneumonia which led to a strong suspicion that death was due to psitta•cosis, or parrots' disease, prompted a warning being issued to budgerlgar fanciers by Dr. J. P. Hastings at a meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board. He said that, in view of-the fact that this was the first probabla case to be reported in the Dominion and on account of the extreme mortality of the disease, it was a matter of national importance. "It would appear that a fatal case of this new disease has occurred in Auckland," Dr. Hastings stated. "I attended the patient, who was a woman, and in my opinion she was suifering from toxic pneumonia acquired from n budgerigar. Psittacosis .attacks the parrot family, of which budgerigars are a member, and there have been a number of cases in which they have communicated the disease to man in Great Britain and other countries. " The vast importance of the matter would be seen when it was realised that 30 to 40 oi every 100 cases proved fatal, and he mentioned the facts in order that the publie and medical practitioners might be on their guard. Many proven cases of the disease being transmitted from burgerigars to humans were known in England and California, and in the United States it was illegal to move birds from one State to another without a certificate oi health issued by an authorised veterinary surgeon. In the fatal Auckland case, Dr. Hastings explained, the patient resisted all forms of treatment, and the whole clinical pieture illustrated that death was almost certainly due to psittacosis. As budgerigars were bred by the patient }s family, the inference was the disease had been transmitted from them. He mentioned that officials of thft Health Department and Dr. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, were ctmducting investigations. Dr. Hastings added that the symptoms in birds that were affected were loss of appetite, drowsiness, severe diarrhoea, drooping of wings and general debility. In man the most usual symptoms were pneumonia, which was exceptionally toxic.