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>Papilloma, so I have to wonder why? Does he know something we all don't 
no
DL>is someone else competent working on this?
Hi Dennis,
To my knowledge Dr. Jack Gaskins of U of Fla College of Vet Med in
Gainesville, Fl, also their resident virologist to the dept, virologist
on grants, and professor of virology, is also and always working on
these (and other) viruses. Jack has been researching polyoma, beak and
feather, and papilloma's possible/probably tie in to pacheco's virus and
avian biliary adenomal carcinoma for years.I'd trust him literally
with my birds lives, and have done so. He is also doing some other viral
work, I believe we have discussed PDS in conversation also. Basically if
it is viral he is into it. The man never sleeps. He is in his lab at all
hours. He's called me at 1 a.m. before, and said he knew I'd be up, as I
was the only person he knew that seemed to get as little sleep as he
does. He is a very dedicated and competent scientist. If you call his
home the kids will say "Dad, who? No, he's at the lab..."
I believe there are some other things he is working on but these are his
projects so I won't discuss details here.
I really appreciate Dr. Gaskins. He tests many of my birds for me. He
has run serology and bloodwork for me on many of my breeders and babies,
including polyoma testing and even sent off some PBFD tests for me if I
wanted to be sure about a bird. He has done necropsy work for me also.
From my dead birds he is able to glean research data to help others. He
says that is all the repayment he needs.
He also gets out there in the "field" when there is a hot outbreak of
something new at an aviary within reasonable distance.
I really think Jack is one of the top men of this field and is a jewel.
I trust and value his opinion.
 * SLMR 2.1a * We're Masonic Santeria Druids-we cement chickens to trees
--- GEcho 1.00
---------------