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Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) - Part 2

Circovirus Clinical Presentations

Form	Clinical Signs	Bird Species
Peracute	Sudden death often with enteritis, pneumonia, weight loss.	Young birds especially Eclectus, Cockatoos, African Greys.
Acute	Replacement of the neonatal down with dystrophic feathers. May have depression and illness for 1-2 weeks. Death over 1 week to 1 month.	All species especially Cockatoos, Budgerigars (French Moult) and Lovebirds.
Chronic	Progressive appearance of abnormally developed feathers. Abnormal beak growth. Immunodeficiency. Death in 6 months to 5 years.	All species especially Cockatoos.
Low incidence of disease. Resistance without antibodies seen.	No clinical signs and no antibodies despite exposure to the virus in environment.	Cockatiels of all ages. Many immunocompetent adult birds of all species.
Recovering carriers	Over next 1-2 moults may recover or may have some lingering feather signs. Usually have antibodies and antigen.	Lorikeets, Budgerigars, Lovebirds
Full recovery after clinical signs.	Peracute, acute and early chronic cases. Usually have antibodies present.	All species
Non-parrot Circovirus (does not cause PBFD)	Non-PBFD Circovirus found in non-Psittacines with no feather changes.	Chicken Anaemia Circovirus in pigeons

Birds may start with one form and progress to another e.g. an acute case may become a carrier.
All the above forms of PBFD may be found on occasion in any Psittacine (parrot) species.

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