DL>I am surprised nobody has mentioned what Dr Richie is up to now...
DL>He is now working on Proventricular dilation Syndrome.
DL>Personally, it would be nice to cure this, but it is not as common as PBFD
DL>or Papilloma, so I have to wonder why? Does he know something we all don't
DL>know, is someone else competent working on this?
I went to hear him speak on his research in mid-May at Bobbi Brinker's
bird club in Toledo, OH. Most of the talk was about the polyoma vaccine
and his work on PDS (formerly called Macaw Wasting Disease).
PDS is the #1 un-test-able bird-killing disease in the US right now.
It's been often misdiagnosed as one of several other problems. He's
working on finding out what exactly causes it (he THINKS it's a virus,
but the team hasn't proven it yet--no actual virus has been found, just
traces thus far). PDS is VERY nasty--he's found that it can take years
to surface after a bird has been infected, yet once the bird becomes ill
with it, there is no stopping the disease.
It seems to be very contagious, and what is the scariest about it is
that it is carried and spread by wild birds--wild geese, ducks and
pigeons, among others. So anybody with an outdoor aviary has birds at
greater risk of being exposed to this disease.
PBFD has a test now, and they are still working on a vaccine, I believe.
Dr. Ritchie feels that the test should help control the disease until a
vaccine is available.
Papilloma, while nasty, isn't normally fatal, so it's not a high
priority.
--Kathy
 * SLMR 2.1a * Genetic Engineers MAKE better lovers.
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