8/15/2020 Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly Virus

Sep 21, 2018, 09:57am EDT

Global Parrot Trade Threatens All

Endangered Parrots By Spreading
Deadly Virus
GrrlScientist Senior Contributor
Science
Evolutionary & behavioural ecologist, ornithologist & science writer

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Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly
Virus | @GrrlScientist

A deadly virus that plagues parrots, destroying their feathers and immune
systems, has recently been detected in eight countries where it was
previously unknown, raising concerns for the long-term conservation of this
threatened group of birds

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8/15/2020 Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly Virus

A wild male rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri, Lakhota Lake, Gujarat, India. (Credit: Dr.... [+]
DR. RAJU KASAMBE VIA A CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

Parrots are popular pets, but this popularity comes with a steep price. They
are amongst the most threatened group of birds (ref), and they are amongst
the most frequently traded birds that are listed as threatened by the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (ref).
The pet trade alone has driven international movements of more than 19
million parrots since 1975 (ref). Predictably, some of these parrots escape or
are released into the wild, and sometimes, these introduced parrots
establish breeding populations, often to the delight of local residents.

One species that has become widely established outside its natural range is
the rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri, a handsome medium-sized
parrot that also happens to be highly invasive; having established breeding
populations in 35 countries on five continents (PDF and ref), including
several regions in the United States.

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Adult male rose-ringed parakeet, Psittacula krameri, commonly known in the pet trade as the... [+]
PUBLIC DOMAIN

Like all animals, parrots have their own collection of pathogens to which
they are susceptible, but one of the most deadly is the virus that causes
psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD). Infection by beak and feather
disease virus (BFDV) often causes feather abnormalities and loss and
occasional, but severe, beak and claw deformities combined with immune
suppression, rendering infected parrots susceptible to a variety of secondary
illnesses to which they would otherwise be resistant. Juvenile parrots are
particularly susceptible, often dying suddenly shortly before fledging.
Because of its powerful immunosuppressive effects, I think of BFDV/PBFD
as “parrot HIV/AIDS”. Basically, BFDV can devastate avicultural and
captive breeding programs and cause tremendous distress to new parrot
owners, not to mention their young birds.

To date, BFDV or PBFD have been recorded in 78 parrot species and five
subspecies (ref) and has been reported in captive parrots in at least 33
countries. Its remarkable spread may have been expedited by the global
trade in live parrots as well as its high transmission rate between closely

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related species and the virus’s exceptional durability in the environment.

The virus is most common in captive-bred parrots, particularly cockatoos,
whereas it occurs in a very few wild populations outside Oceania, where
BFDV is thought to have originated.

At this time, no one was quite sure how far BFDV/PBFD has spread
amongst wild parrot populations, particularly in regions where many species
of parrots naturally occur, but it does represent an indisputable global
biosecurity concern that stems from the pet trade. This prompted Deborah
Fogell and her collaborators to investigate. Ms. Fogell has a Masters’ degree
from the University of Kent, where she studied how providing
supplementary food facilitates transmission of diseases amongst
endangered species that depend upon this resource. Supplemental feeding is
a widespread conservation tool, and is often used to aid species recovery
whilst other factors, such as restoration of damaged habitat, are addressed.

Ms. Fogell and her collaborators’ recently published study was designed to
clarify our understanding of where in the world BFDV/PBFD can be found
in wild or free-flying parrot populations, and to track how it arrived. To do
this, they focused their energies specifically on the highly traded and
invasive rose-ringed parakeet, commonly known in aviculture as the ring-
necked parakeet, an invasive species that continues to spread globally. The
researchers collected blood, feather, and tissue samples and genetically
screened them for the presence of BFDV (Figure 1).

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8/15/2020 Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly Virus

Figure 1. Sampling locations of parrot species screened for beak and feather disease virus (BFDV)...
[+] DEBORAH FOGELL / DOI:10.1111/COBI.13214

Ms. Fogell and her collaborators detected BFDV in eight countries where it
was previously unrecognized, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Japan,
Nigeria, Seychelles, Vietnam, Senegal and The Gambia, and also they
documented the presence of this virus in wild populations of ring-necked
parakeets within the species’s natural range in Asia and Africa.

They found that all parrots screened for BFDV from Bangladesh and The
Gambia were infected, but they did not detect the virus in the threatened
Seychelles black parrot or Praslin parrot, Coracopsis barklyi, in the
Seychelles nor in ring-necked parakeets in Germany, South Africa -- nor in
Kent, U.K. despite its being located right next door to the adjoining Greater
London Area, where it was detected.

Ms. Fogell and her collaborators did detect BFDV in both the native (26.1%)
and invasive parakeet (16.1%) species on Mauritius, home to the endangered
echo parakeet or Mauritius parakeet, Psittacula eques. BFDV was detected
in ring-necked parakeets from Pakistan (71.4%), Japan (6.7%), Nigeria
(9.1%), and Senegal (50%) and in individuals seized from trade in western
Africa (20%). The closely-related grey-headed parakeet, Psittacula finschii,

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which occurs in Vietnam (66.7%), tested positive for BFDV as did Timneh
parrots, Psittacus timneh, seized in western Africa (62.5%).

When BFDV was detected, Ms. Fogell and her collaborators compared and
analyzed the viral DNA sequences against all other publicly available BFDV
sequences to construct a family tree (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree denoting relationships between beak and feather...
[+] DEBORAH FOGELL / DOI:10.1111/COBI.13214

Ms. Fogell and her collaborators inferred that viral variants that were closely
related genetically -- even when their points of origin were geographically
distant -- suggested that they originated from recent introductions, likely
the result of global trade. These findings indicate that the global trade in live
birds and the establishment of invasive populations play a key role in the
spread of BFDV, highlighting the necessity for effective regulation of the
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international trade in live parrots, especially in regions with a lot of

naturally-occurring wild parrots or with threatened parrot populations,
where the popular ring-necked parakeet could act as a reservoir host.

“The successful establishment of invasive species like Rose-ringed parakeets

can be devastating to small island populations or threatened species,” Ms.
Fogell said in a press release. “Not only through competition for resources,
but by exposing them to a virus like BFDV which may pose an important
additional threat to species that are already suffering the pressures of low
genetic diversity and habitat loss.”

Source:

Deborah J. Fogell, Rowan O. Martin, Nancy Bunbury, Becki Lawson, James

Sells, Alison M. McKeand, Vikash Tatayah, Cao Tien Trung, and Jim J.
Groombridge (2018). Trade and conservation implications of new
beak and feather disease virus detection in native and introduced
parrots, Conservation Biology, published online on 28 August 2018 ahead
of print | doi:10.1111/cobi.13214

Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly

Virus | @GrrlScientist 

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GrrlScientist

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8/15/2020 Global Parrot Trade Threatens All Endangered Parrots By Spreading Deadly Virus

Although I look like a parrot, I am an evolutionary ecologist and ornithologist as well as

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