Pachecos Virus
Answering a question we received my messenger from a pet owner and bird breeder.
question: Hello Royal Bird Company, we own several house pets,yellow nape amazon, myers parrot,rosella, and we also have a couple pair of birds we breed (TRY), we breed caiques,senegals,myers parrots, nanday conures and we have several pair of cockatiels, we just lost almost all our birds from an illness called PACHECOS VIRUS, Why did we get this and where could it have come from, our birds always seemed well.
OUR ANSWER: well, this fast moving very virulent virus comes from several sources, it can lay dormant for years and then break out during times of stress, like moving, breeding, and other illness may cause it to break out, once the break out has started it almost cannot be stopped until it runs its course, no cure for this virus, it will take almost all the birds in ones breeding areas and then jump and start in the home on pets, by traveling on your clothes,hands and other utensils, most cleaners and disinfectants do nothing to stop it, ONLY chlorine can kill it or any thing that oxidizes,but by the time you see it, the virus has already taken its toll. and will run through the birds , sometimes birds may not be affected even in the same cage where one dies from it, the others may not succomb, but may become carriers if exposed and they do not die. it is an illness that has caused breeders problems for years, we saw it in action over 35 years ago, we saw a whole collection of rare species killed off, a friend of ours had a collection of rare birds for many years, his wife, saw a pair of very common nanday conures at a bird show or bird mart where people gather to sell their birds, in most cases its where breeders get rid of their culls and bad birds, one does not what conditions they have come from or problems these birds have, not the best place to purchase healthy birds, she purchased the birds, quarantine them for a while almost 3 months, thought all was OK, she put them right beside a pair of endangered species cuban amazons in her husbands collection, in 10 days the cubans were dead, she just walked in one morning and there they was, no symptoms, just died over night, this is classic for this virus, well looking birds just die, sometimes they do have some symptoms, passing yellow water droppings, almost just like yellow colored water, classic liver damage symptoms, Pachceos is a avian herpes virus, it attacks the liver, and it is fast., the care takers normally are the ones that spread it without knowing its present, each time you handle dishes or utensils from the affected birds then touch anothers dish, on your shoes going from one place to another ,BOOM, you spread it and so on and so on. its gets spread in dander,feathers,floating in the air, from a sneeze, from droppings, etc. it jumps cages, you may see it in cages that are close to each other and it spreads down the line, and then stops, then suddenly starts in another part of the aviary or home leaving some birds untouched, WHERE DOES IT COME FROM? In this case, it came with the nandays, very well known that many conures,carry the illness and do not get sick, just like typhoid mary, they carry it and spread it but they are immuned, nandays, patagonians and other conures can carry it, This why we NEVER NEVER have conures on our premises. my friend that had the nandays lost almost all his birds before he knew what he was dealing with, at the end, he lost over 200 rare birds with only few left , BUT the nandays was right there and never had a problem, he said he lost almost 175,000 dollars of birds all because of one $100.00 pair nandays. update: When i asked the the person that sent the question about the pachecos virus in her place, she emailed back and said they had just purchased a single male nanday and a flock of cockatiels from a breeder at a BIRD MART in GA.and in about 10 days saw her first dead birds, She stated she had the nanday tested, I said tested for what?, she said polyoma, even if they tested for pachecos in the nanday it does not show up on a carrier bird, So the best thing is this, if you have rare or birds you really care for, stay away from possible carrier species such as nandays or just breed that type bird, it too risky for us here at the center, we just will not take such a risk. period. know what you are buying, or you will get hurt, one way or the other.
We own and operate one of the largest,selective and most successful breeding farms on the east coast USA. today.
We are professional responsible breeders and we continue to educate people how to properly maintain their birds
