Psittacosis

Abstract

PSITTACOSIS or parrot fever is an acute infectious disease associated with the handling of sick parrots or other tropical birds and characterized by chills, high fever, great weakness and depression and usually by serious lung involvement. Although known for some fifty years, psittacosis has been, until recently, one of the rare diseases. The first extensive outbreak was in Paris in 1892. There were in all fifty-one cases with sixteen deaths. Severe outbreaks occurred in Germany in 1904 and in Scotland in 1921. The first known case in the United States was in 1928. However, from November 3, 1929, to May 7, 1930, there were 169 cases with thirty-three deaths. These were distributed among fifteen states. The source of infection was directly traceable in all cases to recently imported birds of the parrot type. In January 1930 an embargo was placed on all tropical birds entering the United States, but this was changed in October of the same year to a fifteen-day quarantine. In California, where numerous cases of psittacosis have occurred, the Board of Public Health recently made the following regulations for the control of psittacosis: 1. All individuals, firms, or corporations engaged in breeding, buying, or selling any of the birds designated (parrot family and love birds) shall be registered annually with the State Board of Health. There is no fee. 2. Records must be available for official inspection containing dates of purchases, sales, exchanges, or gifts of the birds with the names and addresses of all parties in transactions, and descriptions of the birds. 3. Records of all cases of sickness and death among birds, including the signs and symptoms of each case, shall be kept on file for at least two years and as much longer as may be required by the Health Officer. 4. Places of confinement shall be so constructed that they may be cleansed and disinfected in accordance with instructions issued by the Health Officer. 5. Newly acquired birds shall be isolated for thirty days in an area apart from other places of confinement. If sickness appears among these birds within the required isolation period all of the isolated birds in contact with the sick birds shall either be destroyed or kept in continued isolation for an additional period of thirty days from the last case of illne s in the group.