Micromonsters - Health and Husbandry in Aviculture - An introduction

First thing first. Let's get things straight. I am in no way a vet and do not claim to be, it is probably likely that you are also not a vet. As birdkeepers we can however arm ourselves with the information we require to manage our birds effectively and reduce the chances of poor health. This DOES NOT mean that this information or the practise of preventative husbandry is a substitute for GENUINE VET CARE AND TREATMENT. If you have a bird that is sick and you are looking here for help, you are far too late for this to be useful, please contact your vet immediately.

I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR MISUSE OF INFORMATION AND LACK OF VET CARE, THAT REMAINS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS THE KEEPER OF YOUR BIRDS.

That out of the way, we are all on the same page right?... OK, lets begin.

The point I am putting forward here is that when we keep our eyes ahead of the curve and plan our husbandry and design around common health issues for the species we are working with we can reduce the chances of encountering problems later on that may require vet intervention, prophylactic husbandry if you will.

A flamingo getting clean - to make up for all the angry looking red text.

Generally the theme of "Micromonsters" will be to focus each time on a common bird pathogen, it's origins, history and how we can reduce the chances of our birds encountering it in their daily lives. This introduction is designed to initiate the beginner with the groups of pathogens that exist and some of the relevant species, at a later date we will look closer at each.

So..

Pathogen

[path-uh-juh n, ‐jen]

noun

1.

any disease-producing agent, especially a virus, bacterium, or other microorganism.

As above a pathogen is something that causes or has the potential to cause disease in our birds, in our case they fall into several groups and categories. The most simple designations are Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes, the difference between these being not one of species but of structure, the prokaryote is a simple single celled cell or organism and a eukaryote is a larger more complex cell containing many features lacking in prokaryotes. Eukaryote cells often make up more complex organisms such as yourself. These two categories are not however, of much help to us on this topic in practise, so I will move on to cover the basic groups relevant to birds otherwise we will be here all week.

Bacteria - Many common Avian and human complaints are caused by various species of bacteria and certain conditions and practises can encourage this group to flourish. Typically a bacteria is a single celled organism, sometimes prokaryote and sometimes eukaryote in structure and is defined (in almost all cases) by a strong cell wall around the cell membrane to protect it from the conditions under which it thrives. Many bacteria form the natural flora of our birds and ourselves and so managing the intestinal flora of your birds can be helpful to some degree, probiotics are helpful here but that is a whole other topic. Bacteria can also be classified as either Gram-positive or Gram negative based on their reaction to the Gram's method, a staining process which helps identify a species using stain. There are also some which do not react to this method and those are referred to as Gram indeterminate. The relevance of these categories is that some of these groups thrive in the gut of our birds under certain conditions and within these groups are some very ugly species which will happily take advantage of our birds and sometimes even us once the immune system is compromised, which can happen as a result of something as simple as a catch up. We have to remember that (as covered in other articles) stress is subjective, so something is as stressful as the bird decides it is, therefore this can become a major factor in exposing our birds to disease risks. Bacteria generally do well in poorly sanitised, compacted, wet areas, so maintaining good hygiene and effective disinfectant usage is critical in covering these bases.

Some relevant species include:  

Pseudotubercolosis (Yersinia Spp.) 

Salmonellosis (Salmonella Spp.)

Enteritis (Escherichia Spp.)

Botulism (Clostridium Spp.)

Ornithosis (Chlamydia psittaci)
Bumblefoot (Staphylococcus Spp.) 
Avian Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium Spp.)

A gross and scary looking picture for you, (Stappylococcus aureus) - known for smash hits such as MRSA.

Fungi - When most of us think of fungi we think of mushrooms, and that would be correct. Whilst many members of this group are benign and harmless, some are toxic and some will even prey on other living organisms. Other common fungi are moulds and yeasts, there are several species which can really cause damage in avian species although many of these are often taking advantage of a deeper problem and acting more as opportunists but will sometimes finish a job that another pathogen has started, killing your bird. Pure fungal infection under healthy, stress free, clean conditions is unusual. Fungi thrive in damp, poorly ventilated conditions and will grow on anything that contains carbon, which includes (you guessed it!) most commonly used substrates in aviaries. It is important to remember that as non photosythetic organisms they do not require light to survive and their hypha are often hidden, so therefore something that does not look riddled with a fungus species often can be, it just has not produced fruiting bodies (the external parts) yet.

Some relevant species include:

Aspergillosis/Aspergilloma (Aspergillus Spp.)

Sour crop & yeast infections (Candida Spp.)

One of the many Aspergillus species, here cultured in a lab. I have read that the cultured forms enjoy opera.

Protozoa - This group is made up of various eukaryote organisms which can be either free living or parasitic. Some of these species are transmitted to our birds by intermediate hosts which can deliver them directly into the bloodstream. Insect bites are a classic example and as you can image are difficult to avoid. In such cases the best routes of action are providing resistance in our birds and aiming to eliminate the hosts which bring them to our birds. Some species can contaminate the surrounding environment and reinfect birds at a later date once the initial infection is cleared, so again effective aviary management can help reduce these risks.

Some relevant species include: 

Coccidiosis (Coccidia Spp.) 

Atoxoplasmosis (Atoxoplasma Spp.)

Giardiasis (Giardia Spp.) 
Avian Malaria (Plasmodium Spp.)

 

Viruses - The general definition of a virus is a molecule which carries it's own DNA wrapped in a protein sheath which acts as a cellular parasite, effectively hijacking other cells and using their resources to produce copies of the virus, which will in turn go on to infect other cells often destroying the cell which produced them. With such an effective and destructive method of replication it is easy to see how viruses can spread so quickly through populations. Their fragile nature does however make them very dependant on their host and they do not usually survive for long outside of their unfortunate host.

Some relevant species include:

Avian Flu (Influenzavirus A Spp.) 

Avian Polyomavirus (Polyomaviridae Spp.) 

Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (Circovirus Spp.)

  
Helminths - Remaining is a group that are often encountered in mammals but also birds. The Helminths are what we would generally refer to a worms, this includes roundworms, tapeworms and flukes. Various species live as parasites within a variety of tissue types, consuming digestive contents or parts of the tissues themselves. They reproduce by several methods, most of which involve shedding segments or eggs from their host to be excreted elsewhere and infect others. The trick with birds is breaking the cycle, often birds can be wormed, but then are infected again weeks later by eggs in the substrates of the aviary. The conditions of these substrates can also lend themselves to extending the lifespan of these eggs. A heavy infection of worms of any kind can cause emaciation and death. In some extreme cases the worms (dead or alive) can even cause blockages within the body and cause death that way.

Some relevant species include: 

Roundworms (Nematoda Spp.) 

Tapeworms (Cestoda Spp.)

Flukes (Trematoda Spp.) 

Ready for your close up Mr Roundworm? What do you mean "can we meet for a meal later"?

Mites and Lice - Although not considered microorganisms as they are complex, multiple celled animals, they deserve an Honourable mention in our rogues gallery as they will often cause issues in similar ways to the previously mentioned groups. Their management can also be approached in a similar way. 

Some relevant species include: 

Red mite  (Dermanyssus gallinae)

Scaly leg mites (Knemidocoptes Spp.) 

Air sac mite (Cytodites spp.)

Feather lice  (Phthiraptera spp.)

Ticks (Anactinotrichida Spp.)
 

Where would we be without a creepy picture of a red mite?

As you can see from just this small selection, there is an army of nasties waiting out there to infect and damage our precious charges should we become negligent enough to let them. In this respect constant management and basic understanding of these species will give us the upper hand when developing our husbandry methods. I hope this has been interesting and helpful to you and if you are already versed in the basics, a peppy refresher! Next time we will be getting down to the nitty gritty and looking at the specifics of a more common pathogen and how we can reduce the chances of exposure in our own birds.

Because you have got this far and battled through, here is a baby hummingbird drinking from a pretend flower.

As an exercise in thought in the mean time, have a think about a pathogen you have encountered before in your birds and how you may have been able to reduce exposure had you known ahead of time.

Try not to get too creeped out,

C.