Case report: An avian pox outbreak in captive psittacine birds in Chile

Abstract

An outbreak of avian pox in a psittacine bird colony was recognized in Chile. Although 12 psittacine birds of different genera were in contiguous cages within the same building, clinical signs and mortality were restricted to the Agapornis, Neophema, Polytelis, and Platycercus genera. Fifty of 188 psittacine birds were affected with clinical signs; the disease was usually self-limiting, but 11 birds died. In the affected birds, cutaneous lesions were usually observed on the featherless parts of the face and legs. A strain of avian poxvirus was isolated from cutaneous lesions harvested from Polytelis swainsonii by inoculation onto the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken embryos. Intracytoplasmatic inclusion bodies were visualized by light microscopy in the infected chorioallantoic membranes and also in infected psittacine tissues. Diagnosis of this pox outbreak was made by clinical signs, epidemiology, histopathology, virus isolation, and serological identification. Birds that exhibited clinical signs were treated. As far as we know, this is the first report of avian pox in Polytelis swainsonii and P. alexandrae.