Effect of Trichomonas gallinae from Diseased Mourning Doves on Clean Domestic Pigeons

Abstract

Trichomonas gallinae, pathogenic trichomonad of birds, was reported from captive mourning doves (Zenaidura macroura) and ring doves (Streptopelia risoria) by Cauthen (1936). It was described from a diseased wild mourning dove in Ohio by Harwood (1946), in North Carolina by McCulloch (1950), and in Colorado doves by Stabler (1950). The writer (1950) also reported it from the band-tailed pigeon (Columba f. fasciatac) from Colorado. The early spring, summer, and fall of 1950 saw an outbreak of dove trichomoniasis over most of the southern United States, with perhaps the greatest mortality occurring in Alabama. Haugen (1950) thought that the deaths might run well into the thousands in that state. What this might do to the mourning dove as a species is, of course, difficult to say at this moment. It seems certain that the parasite will be an important ecological factor indefinitely. One wonders whether or not the trichomonads from these dead and dying doves could or could not establish themselves in clean (trichomonad-free) pigeons, and, if they could produce infections, whether or not they could harm the pigeon. Several investigators close to the sites of the outbreaks most generously supplied the writer with material from diseased doves, or the birds themselves. It is the result of placing the trichomonads from these sources into members of the writer's colony of T. gallinae-free common pigeons (Columba livia) with which the present paper deals.