Basic Quarantine
(Internet Published) Apr 2002
For several months pigeon disease epidemics have decimated the British
pigeon population. In February, 2002, I was informed that one of our top
show pigeon judges had been very seriously subjected to a pigeon disease
epidemic which caused the death of almost all of his stock.
A few years ago, another of our top show pigeon judges had an epidemic. As
usual, details about these cases are not available. In both cases, I know
that both men kept an awful lot of pigeons on what I call the ancient "Deep
Litter System" which most likely supported a lot of mice.
Now, mice generate and spread Salmonella, which is as deadly as Paramixo
Virus Disease. I would be very interested to know precisely how these two
outbreaks originated. I suspect that new pigeons, that were not properly
quarantined before being housed with existing stock, introduced these
diseases.
Such purchases should have been isolated well away from existing stock for
about 9 weeks. This gives the new pigeons time to accept the new environment
and build up a resistance to the range of local bugs. Long established stock
will build up a resistance to local bugs but may very well be carriers of
certain diseases, which remain in a dormant state.
However, they may not have the resistance to different strains of bugs and
viruses that are introduced from elsewhere. Perhaps the hybrid strength of
existing bugs and newly introduced bugs is too much for any of the pigeons
to cope with. It is possible that established stock, apparently resistant to
local bugs, can be infected by alien bugs when taken to a show. It is
possible that alien bugs are introduced on the shoes and clothing of
visitors or on the shoes and clothing of the owner who has visited another
loft or attended a show. There is no doubt that some pigeon diseases are as
deadly as the Foot and Mouth Disease which spread like wildfire through
Britain and yet who disinfects before and after a visit to a loft or to a
show?
With the ancient deep litter system, that would be impossible anyway -
especially when two to three hundred pigeons are involved. Who isolates his
own pigeons when he gets them back from a show or from a race? Who puts a
ban on pigeon movements and visits when he has an outbreak of disease? There
is no law about such restrictions and to my certain knowledge some men
continued to show or race their pigeons even though they had sickness in
their lofts. Is there any wonder that we get these epidemics?