Pathological findings and their association with diseases of captive psittacine birds native to Mexico

Abstract

The captivity and use of native psittacine birds is prohibited in Mexico. However, as these birds are among the groups most affected by illegal trafficking, they are commonly found as companion animals. Nevertheless, it is difficult to obtain information on their health. Therefore, a retrospective study was conducted of the clinical histories and necropsy reports of native psittacines that had been submitted to the Bird Disease Diagnostic and Research Laboratory of the Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, from 2006 to 2017. The lesions were classified according to type and anatomical location and the diseases were classified as infectious or non-infectious. During this period, 252 psittacines were submitted, the most frequent of which were the red-lored parrot (Amazona autumnalis), orange-fronted parakeet (Eupsittula canicularis) and scarlet macaw (Ara macao). The lesions were primarily located in the digestive and respiratory systems. By integrating the clinical histories and post-mortem findings, we concluded that nutritional disorders were the most frequent non-infectious diseases, systemic bacterial infections were the most frequent infectious conditions, the primary parasite was Sarcocystis spp and the most frequent neoplasm was multicentric lymphoma.