Pigeon Disease Prevention

The risks present when many birds come together in a crowded and confined area, badly ventilated spaces. The latter is asure way of encouraging the spread of all types of diseases,even deficiency ones, as birds in such conditions will not feedreadily or take the supplements provided to fortify their diet.Drinking water becomes contaminated, and the air stale,which provides a natural medium for the passage of infection.Parasitic infection is encouraged as food contaminated bydroppings soon passes eggs, oocytes, etc, from one bird toanother, and external parasites are passed by direct contact.Lofts must be kept well ventilated and dry. A damp loft is an ideal environment for many organisms causing disease.

Fanciers should ensure that any floor-dressing they use is notsimply cosmetic but has at least some bactericidal properties.To keep the loft free of external parasites such as lice, etc, agood brand of insecticide must he used on a regular basis. Atleast twice a year the loft should be treated with one of theresidual (persistent) varieties to ensure the control of red-mite.The need for the fancier to learn the life-cycle of parasites isshown by the following example: if one is treating an infesta-tion of lice by spraying with an insecticide, it is essential tospray again after four weeks to ensure that the young lice,which have emerged since the birds were first sprayed, areeffectively killed. For the eggs or nits are not killed by thespray, only the adult form. If this is not known, the initialtreatment would be a waste of time as reinfestation wouldinevitably take place.

Adequate loft hygiene and routine treatment for worms,canker, coccidiosis and external parasites, together with thesensible use of minerals and vitamins, should be the aim of allfanciers. Such conduct would go a long way in the preventionof disease, and if such hygiene were extended to transportersand panniers on a national scale the incidence of disease wouldbe almost minimal. Routine preventive treatment such as thisis usually given before the breeding season starts, and againbefore the first race. Commonly used drugs for this purposeare amprolium for coccidiosis, aminonitrothiazole for canker(alias trichomoniasis), methyridine and/or piperazine forround-worm and pyrethrin for fleas and lice.

Avoid poultryde-wormers such as mebendazole, which is toxic to pigeonswhen they are feeding youngsters. More controversial is theuse of vaccine to prevent paramyxovirus - a variant of fowlpest or Newcastle disease - which has recently been reportedin pigeons. It is claimed that this virus can be transmit-ted by pigeons back to domestic poultry, producing in them amild form of fowl pest. At the time of writing, a programme ofvaccination, using two doses of injected killed virus, isrecommended by the RPRA and the MAFF, and is compulsory for all pigeons being raced to Britain from the Continent.The use of a live attenuated vaccine is prohibited in Britain,both for fear that it will mutate to a more virulent form andalso because it is believed to be less effective. Many fanciersstrongly dislike the vaccination programme. Others haveagreed to it in order to protect their birds from this infectionand in an attempt to obtain agreement for races from theContinent once again, after they were stopped in 1983.

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