You folks seen this??

Four to five weeks ago a friend (out of state) shipped me a few pair of Andalusian, yellow, and reduced birds that I loaned him for the Summer. About the same time, I also recieved two auction birds that I had purchased, shipped from a different friend in the same state. My friend warned me that I should quarantine them because a couple of his birds looked ill (which I always do anyway). When they arrived one was sitting all fluffed up looking ill so I culled it immediately . Meanwhile, in a couple days, two of my healthy breeders in the old breeding loft died over night. There are hard floors in that loft with deep litter for winter breeding. I had the two birds necropsied in Raleigh and the report came back "Cause of Death-Roundworms." So I immediately began worming all my birds. But while I was doing so all the loaners died in quarantine within days ... and so did more of my breeders in my old breeding loft...several every day; highly unusual for worms, I thought. I called the avian pathologist, and told him about this and he requested that I send him some live sick birds and some more dead ones. By that time I had 20 birds sitting on the floor of my old breeding loft fluffed up with shit in their tails, some with vibrating heads and bodies like Troy Copeland reported and had videoed in the illness that has devasted his birds in Indiana. Other seemingly healthy birds were still being found dead overnight....healthy one day dead the next....I began to think I had multiple disease problems occuring at the same time, because of the different symptoms I was seeing.
Meanwhile I vaccinated all the breeders in the new loft and my A team and B team for PMV and Paratyphoid, fearing the worst. I was relieved that I had not seen the twisted neck torticolis in any of the birds. I used to vaccinate regularly, but had gotten away from vaccinating the past 5-7 years because those diseases seemed so rare and I knew of nobody that had experienced it. It seemed like overkill and it was expensive. My kitboxes and new loft are 50 yds from the old breeder loft and quarantine box, so I thought I could keep it contained, with my knowledge of sterile technique. I used latex gloves, sterililzed drinkers and waters with Virkon S and chlorox, kept one pair of shoes for that loft and fed that loft last. Meanwhile, I texted my friend and asked if his birds were ok, and he said they were all fine.....and he denied telling me to quarantine the returned birds because some of his were ill. After vaccinating, I gave my birds 4 in 1, metronidazole for canker, meds for ciccidiosis and followed up with vitamins and Probios...all normal procedures for me every Fall in preparation for breeeding....but every day I lost more birds in the old breeding loft. It had housed 20 pair of breeders and 45 young birds being weaned before putting them in kitboxes. The young birds seemed to be the ones that sat on the floor fluffed up and quit eating and died within 2-3 days. Most of the older breeders died overnight without displaying signs of illness, although a few displayed the "young bird" symptoms first.
The avian pathologist sent in tissue samples for routine virus isolation and genetic sequencing for identification which takes 7 days or so.....Then I heard that Jerry Gagne at Foys had a new illness and was losing birds. I called him and he told me to alert the NBRC members that a new virus had killed thousands of Homers and show pigeons in the US...including his own loft...with 70% mortality reported in some cases. I told him of my own recent situation. He confirmed that University Vet Medicine Departments at Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, and University of Pennsylvania were actively investigating.
I immediately sent out the alert on the NBRC Forum and Facebook pages and with the help of Cam Datanagan set up a Pigeon Health US Facebook page to encourage communication about the problem, its identification, prevention and treatment. Cam, being on the NPA Board, was fielding reports of similar losses in a number of breeds . The new Pigeon Health FB Page exploded with reports of huge losses of pigeons all accross the US, Canda, Europe, and Australia....all breeds....including rollers....one guy in Arizona had 11 rollers left out of 200. A Homer guy lost 800! All sorts of presumed anecdotal causes and cures are being reported, but most blamed a "new virus" attacking both vaccinated and unvaccinated birds, but very little was confirmed as fact...mostly heresay and conjecture.. Meanwhile Jerry Gagne's report came back that his culprit was Adeno virus.....Australia reports the confirmation of a new virus called "Reo-virus" by Dr Colin Walker.They have lost huge numbers of birds, also, and are sequencing the virus and hoping for a vaccine to be developed, but it will take up to 18 months. I began to think that perhaps this was what we were dealing with in the US and Europe. My lab results were not yet available.(Takes 7-10 days.) And I was still losing 5-10 birds every day. Finally last week I started seeing the twisted necks in a few birds and knew that I must have PMV.... still losing some overnight with others sitting in the floor fluffed up.
Last Thursday I got my report back....confirming a highly virulent form of PMV ! I called the pathologist and asked if he was certain because these reports of a new virus. He was a little insulted that I would question his diagnosis, and stated emphatically that he was 100% sure that it is PMV-1 and that this was most likely the cause of the outbreak, and could easily be confirmed if fanciers would necropsy sick birds instead of guessing at the illness and trying to cure their birds with antibiotics or natural cures (there is no cure for PMV)...He indicated that it was also possible that everpresent Adeno and Circo virus might also be involved in some cases, which he had not found in my birds. He indicated that normally PMV is only fatal 5% of the time, but rare virulent types can be 7O% fatal....like the abnormal highly virulent flu in the 1920s in humans that killed thousands. Thank God I had vaccinated . I still had no losses in the 20 pair in my new breeder loft; but now it spread to my kit boxes ( PMV is airborne and highly contagious. Contact controls and disinfecting are not 100% effective). I vaccinated the 2016 kitbirds and the few holdovers from 2015 the last few days, but too late....and have lost most of them....boxes with 29-25 birds have 5-6 left that have survived.....124 dead so far.
Although we may be dealing with a new virus in some areas of the world and the US, I suspect that a pandemic PMV outbreak is the cause of most of this.....Pigeon people have gotten very lazy about vaccinating....Swapping, auctioning, buying, selling, racing, and showing are an integral part of the pigeon hobby....and those practices have contributed to the development of this perfect storm of PMV outbreak, in my opinion. Most guys still won't take responsibility and admit they got slack with vaccinating....its easier and more dramatic to blame a new virus as the cause. And we are still getting reports of vaccinated birds becoming infected, so we still have much to learn. PMV Vaccine is now hard to find. PMV has been confirmed in other states and in nearby Kentucky (where they have the Young Bird Show and fanciers report illness after bringing birds home from the show.) See the Pigeon Health US Facebook page for more details of the Kentucky and Australia situation.
Bottom LIne???? Vaccinate your birds! ASAP! Quarantine your lofts! Do not purchase, swap, sell, ship, show or race pigeons right now. Fortunately, I haven't sent any birds out to anyone since summer, several months before this occurred. I have had requests for birds and had promised to donate birds to several auctions, but haven't and won't be shipping any. If you won bids on birds that I promised please contact me and/or Don Macauley. This has been devastating to me.....I lost whole lines of awesome birds that were developed over many years....parents and young altogether.....The disease seems to be winding down now ....I just have to wait this out and see what I have left in the Spring....and hope it doesn't spread again to the core of my breeders and pray I don't get wiped out completely....Good luck to everyone in the roller hobby. We will get through this.....but we will pay a price for not being vigilant.....We just need to sharpen our loft managment skills and communicate with each other......something that many pigeon guys are hesitant to do when it comes to diseases in their loft.
Cliff Ball
NBRC Director at Large

Frightening read that Hal, moral of the story is make sure your birds are vaccinated, lots of people out there that don't , so even more important yours are done

I really cant understand why guys are not more stringent with new arrivals and ybs ....anything that comes here is vaccinated irrespective of age and ybs get done twice in their year of birth ,I had a friend who never vaccinated stock said no point to it 3 weeks later he had a outbreak and was devastated at what he saw ,now every bird gets done ...I know a guy who used to use 1/2 dose same again pmv came calling ruined his season ...mine never overlap a 1 year period between vaccinations ...in ybs it actually stimulates the immune system ...for £20 you have piece of mind but some pigeon men are their own worst enemies ...thanks for posting hal

Lofty wrote:

Frightening read that Hal, moral of the story is make sure your birds are vaccinated, lots of people out there that don't , so even more important yours are done

No vaccination, no race is our rule here lofty etc & one has to sign a statury declaration that it has been done as such. Not perfect, but I suspect most play by the rules here fortunately. Though the latest virus to hit us could just about be the finish for many flyers here by the comments I've heard. Cheers.

Hard time getting vaccine here as the company quit making it.