Pigeon Malaria ?

andy Burgess · October 13, 2011

reading this week,s B.H.W. page 111 a product to eradicate Pigeon Malaria ,supposedly now found in the U.K. ?? anybody aware of this or just another scare tactic to releive fanciers of there cash ? :emoticon-0138-thinking:

mushroom · October 13, 2011

I dont know or have ever heard of anyone who has had Pigeon Malaria, but the person selling it is always trying to sell something or other whether it is a "new" system or a "must have" go faster product.

walterbmasson · October 13, 2011

a whole lot o fools and money are easily parted and no doubt some fools will buy

clockman · October 13, 2011

:emoticon-0126-nerd:

Pigeon Malaria

Cause - This fairly common pigeon disease is caused by a protozoan that attacks the red blood cells of our birds. It is primarily carried by the pigeon fly, which acts as the intermediate host. Random tests of pigeon flocks have shown as much as a 30% malaria rate.

Symptoms - Symptoms are vague. Except for some loss of gloss in plumage and reduced performance in racing events, there are no readily visible symptoms.

Prevention - Since the pigeon fly is the primary carrier of this disease, it is imperative that these flies be controlled. It' important to quarantine newly acquired birds, dust or dip birds after they have mingled with others, and eliminate contact wild pigeons, because curing this disease is very difficult.

andy Burgess · October 13, 2011

it also states its here in the U.K. due to warmer weather in the Winter :emoticon-0127-lipssealed: i think we have nothing to fear up here then :scotland: . :emoticon-0136-giggle: .

Roland · October 13, 2011

I know the USA flyers inocculated against it. Billy Taylor, a very knowledgeable and more than a good flyer, was promoting the use, and the need for in over there 12 years ago.

Could find the debate if of a mind I guess. But like he said THEN when over here 'Don't think you have the same weather / problems we have'. Don't think that that has changed much regardless as of now and the Climate Change'! JMO

andy Burgess · October 13, 2011

I know the USA flyers inocculated against it. Billy Taylor, a very knowledgeable and more than a good flyer, was promoting the use, and the need for in over there 12 years ago.
Could find the debate if of a mind I guess. But like he said THEN when over here 'Don't think you have the same weather / problems we have'. Don't think that that has changed much regardless as of now and the Climate Change'! JMO

interesting that they innoculated for it , advert suggest (to me) this stuff is the only way ??

October 13, 2011

Not malaria, but have heard of at least one case of pseudomalaria here. Have posted years ago about problems a clubmate was having, which he thought was pseudomalaria. He'd 'tiny midges' which drove him, his birds & his visitors mad with their bites, and an expert that had set traps in & around the loft told him that there were 3 types of insect present which could carry pseudomalaria.

Pseudomalaria is spread by pigeon fly. Kenny up in Shetland posted a sketch of a feather with patterned holes in it, which I emailed to Gordon Chalmers at the time. Gordon replied that it was like the photos on p199 of Wim Peter's book, Fit to Win 2, 'pinpricks on primary flight feathers caused by pigeon fly'. Details of pseudomalaria are on p169.

At that time the web said nearest to us pigeon fly had been found was Faroe Islands, but members posted that pigeon fly was present in South of England. A member from Ireland posted that his birds had had the disease, from memory, in 2006.

Found original thread:-

http://forum.pigeonbasics.org/topic/33355-mega-pinholes/page__p__515652__hl__pseudomalaria__fromsearch__1entry515652

Some of the links on the thread are broken. <_<