Abstract
Avian Malaria Deaths in Parrots, Europe
Highlights
To the Editor: Avian malaria is an insect-borne disease induced by a so far unknown number of protozoan blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus (hematozoa) [1,2]
Because all affected parrots had been bred in Europe and had no contact to imported birds, these results suggest that infection was the result of previously unknown cross-species transmission of Haemoproteus spp. between birds of only distantly related orders [8,9]
The cases reported here suggest that these parasites that have adapted to European songbirds may cause fatal outbreaks in native psittacines of Australia, New Zealand, and South America that are raised in captivity
Summary
To the Editor: Avian malaria is an insect-borne disease induced by a so far unknown number of protozoan blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus (hematozoa) [1,2]. Numerous outbreaks of fatal protozoan infections have been reported over the past 40 years, mainly among psittacines of Australia that have been kept in aviaries [5,6].
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