Avian pox in parrots
Other names: Pox
Symptoms
- Wart-like growths and scabs on unfeathered skin (face, eyelids, legs)
- Wet form: plaques in the mouth and throat with difficulty swallowing and breathing
- Generalized form: systemic disease
How it spreads
Mainly mosquito bites, or skin wounds; it does not penetrate intact skin.
Diagnosis
History and examination, and tissue (Bollinger bodies).
Treatment
Supportive: fluids, injectable vitamin A, antibiotic for secondary infection. [Update 3] Merck (reviewed May 2026): treatment is non-specific: support, fluids, injectable vitamin A, eye ointment, antibiotics for secondary infections and daily wound cleaning. Infection via mosquitoes or skin wounds; mosquito control and indoor housing. Canary, chicken and pigeon pox vaccines are species-specific and not for parrots.
Prevention
Mosquito control (mosquito netting for aviaries, draining standing water), especially in summer and the Nile Delta; the available vaccines are for other species (canary/pigeon/chicken).
Treatment and doses are decided by an avian vet after an exam; Zajel does not publish doses.
Other diseases
- Psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD)
- Polyomavirus
- Proventricular dilatation disease (PDD) / bornavirus
- Pacheco's disease (psittacid herpesvirus)
- Internal papillomatosis
- Newcastle disease (bird paralysis)
- Avian influenza
- West Nile virus