The Smoking Parrot and Other Birds                                                                                          Richard J B Willis

Well, to be more precise, the choking parrot!  A couple who spent more than £600 at the vets for antibiotics, allergy tests, and nebulisers because their bird's beak ran and he sneezed all day have now got to the root of the problem.  Their smoking!  For 20 years Jay Jay the Amazonian parrot had been passive smoking.

By quitting smoking the parrot has been given a new lease of life.  Apart from smoking and neglect it is not often that humans affect birds.  Usually it is the other way round.  Birds are in the news in a big way across the world as spreaders of disease.

Migratory birds are thought to be spreading H5N1 bird flu.  This flu has devastated Asian poultry flocks and are being blamed for dropping little viral 'bombs' over Queensland, Australia.  The flu strain evolved in southern China, and migrating ducks have taken it to Korea and Siberia.  A slightly different strain of the flu, H5N2, has been found in ostriches in South Africa resulting in a 30,000 bird cull to control spread of the disease.

Aside from the loss of bird life why should we be concerned?  The bird flu is not just affecting the avian population, it has developed a strain which infects pigs and has killed hundreds of them in Malaysia.  There is good reason to believe that some past human flu epidemics started as pigs were simultaneously infected by bird and human viruses giving rise to new strains re-infecting humans.

Already 24 people in Asia have been killed by a strain of the H5N1 virus.  The intermingling of viral strains is responsible for the lethality of the virus as it affects human beings.  Millions of chickens in Asia were killed by the virus earlier this year.

In days gone by miners used to take canaries down the pits as early warning devices for the presence of gas.  With birds as both carriers of disease and being the first to die of the avian flu, they may unwittingly be serving the same purpose!  If nothing else, these reports highlight the close relationship of all of life showing that what affects one element of it may affect all.

There are fears that people will not want to visit countries that have been affected by bird flu in case they contract a strain of the virus.  The reality is that the viruses are already widespread.  Careful hygiene and lifestyle measures will help to minimise the risk of 'getting the bird' (flu) and keep the Jay Jays of the world happy.