Molecular Survey of Pathogens in Wild Amazon Parrot Nestlings: Implications for Conservation

Abstract

South America presents the greatest Psittacidae diversity in the world, but also has the highest numbers of threatened parrot species. Recently, exotic viruses have been detected in captive native psittacine birds in Brazil, however, their impacts on the health of wild parrots are still unknown. We evaluated the presence of Chlamydia psittaci, Psittacid alphaherpesvirus 1 (PsHV-1), avipoxvirus and beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in wild Amazona aestiva, A.brasiliensis and A.pretrei nestlings and in wild caught A.aestiva nestlings seized from illegal trade. Samples were collected from 205 wild nestlings and 90 nestlings from illegal trade and pathogen-specific PCR was performed for each sample. Chlamydia DNA prevalence was 4.7% in A.aestiva and 2.5% in A.brasiliensis sampled from the wild. Sequencing revealed that the C.psittaci sample belonged to the genotype A. PsHV-1, avipoxvirus and BFDV DNA was not detected. These results have conservation implications since they suggest that wild parrot populations have a low prevalence of the selected pathogens and, apparently, they were not reached by the exotic BFDV. Stricter health protocols should be established as condition to reintroduction of birds to the wild to guarantee the protection of Neotropical parrots.

A PCR-Based Retrospective Study for Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) in Five Wild Populations of Parrots from Australia, Argentina and New Zealand

“…Recent studies are starting to fill those gaps. Vaz et al [29] using pathogen-specific PCR, evaluated the presence of BFDV. As in our study, Vaz et al [29] detected no BFDV DNA in a large sample of 205 wild nestlings and 90 nestlings from the illegal trade.…”

“…Vaz et al [29] using pathogen-specific PCR, evaluated the presence of BFDV. As in our study, Vaz et al [29] detected no BFDV DNA in a large sample of 205 wild nestlings and 90 nestlings from the illegal trade. Moreover, we are confident that our study also makes a substantial contribution to BFDV research by providing further screening results for South American parrots, including two of the most numerous species, and by contributing a large screening with negative results, obtained with a methodology thoroughly tested [18,46,47,60].…”

“…Studies on diseases, health and pathogens of captive parrots are published regularly [15,18,19]. Nevertheless, there is limited information on pathogenic infection in free-living Psittaciformes [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. This paucity of studies on pathogens and diseases among free-living parrots makes it clear that we only partially understand their role as a threatening factor.…”

“…The beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) is a small circular single stranded DNA virus in the family Circoviridae [30,31], often cited as a pathogen of conservation concern for parrots in the wild, as well as in captivity [6,8,29,32], given its immune-suppressive effect in infected birds [33,34]. Abnormal plumage and morphological development, anaemia, damage of the lymphoid tissue, feather loss and weight loss among infected birds are common symptoms associated with this viral infection [35].…”

Recent Advances in Parrot Research and Conservation

“…Chlamydia but not beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) in Brazil [14]. A retrospective study also failed to find BFDV in Australia, Argentina, and New Zealand [15], while a new BFDV genotype has recently been found in non-native Spanish parakeet populations [16], and a three-decade study investigated the diversification of this virus and the subsequent waves of infection in Mauritius [17].…”