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Hi to all,
This is just an email to make those of you who haven’t heard of Trichonomas gallinae aware of its existence.
The trichomonad parasite lives in the upper digestive tract of the bird, and its actions progressively block the bird’s throat making it unable to swallow food, thus killing it by starvation (from the RSPB website: http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/health/sickbirds/greenfinches.asp).
Last week, I noticed this little greenfinch, which at first glance appeared as a very friendly little juvenile as it was allowing me to be less than a meter away from it, spending countless hours in my garden. But then I realised that it had all of the symptoms of a bird affected by Trichonomas gallinae:
-Fluffed up
-Lethargic
-Poor at flying (flying very low, with random trajectories)
-Still trying to feed
-Laboured breathing
-Difficulty in swallowing , closing its mouth, eating and drinking
-difficulty maintaining balance
-Seed stuck around beak
-drinking a lot more than any other songbirds, salivate excessively
-spending countless hours on the ground, daring wood pigeons for a feed
-taking ages to become aware of my presence (I could be very close to it)
…basically a lot of things that you would not see with your average finch
no longer than a couple of days from when I identified that it had that disease, I found it dead in my garden. Luckily, no scavenger had a go at it, as this parasite can get transmitted to any bird eating a dead affected bird.
And today, as it wasn’t enough, I identified another green finch with the spectrum of symptoms I mentioned above.
I believe that an infected bird can live between 4 and 18days. Transmission can occur via several routes, one of wich: via contamination of food and water . As pieces of grain or water are being placed in the mouth they get contaminated by organisms, and then dropped back on the ground, in the feeder, or in the water source. When another bird feeds or drinks in this location, T. gallinae is ingested and an infection may result. This organism can live at least 5 days on some moist grains and 20 minutes to several hours in water. The organism is extremely sensitive to desiccation (drying) as there is no cyst or resistant stage of the life cycle.
It does affect many other birds, including doves, pigeons…..
The recommended route of action is:
hygiene at your feeders (regular cleaning) and in the case of death, affected birds, stopping feeding for a while as a big congregation of birds at your feeders can increase the chances of the parasite spreading.
There is a lot more info available on line for those interested
I hope I didn’t ruin your day, I just wanted to mention about this nasty parasite that is giving me headaches. I hope that you do not have to experience this in your garden. I hope that I helped those of you troubled by the sight of the odd looking greenfinch in their garden.
Hi Isabelle
I had the same problem with my Collard Doves, 2 used to come in looking quite poorly. I stopped supplying my ground feeders for the last 2 weeks because I was worried about contamination. Having seen no sick birds for the last 2 weeks, this weekend I have started putting food out.
Horrible isn't it, but there is nothing you can do other than what you have already said, good hygiene and withdraw feeding until the sick ones disappear. You should report it though as the RSPB are keeping written records of such birds. Have a look at a post "Collard Doves" one of the RSPB has posted a fact sheet and details of what to do.
Good luck
Regards
Kerry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kezmo6310/
I have a very poorly greenfinch spending a lot of it's time in my garden lately, I am very aware that it has this illness and it breaks my heart, I don't know what to do for the poor little mite, I know it's going to die, and I just do not want to have to find it out there once it has. Is there anything i can do for it or should I just accept it as part of the natural cycle and leave it to it's fate? I will be cleaning the entire area tomorrow and removing all food and feeders and bird baths and won't be putting them out until I know it's safe to do so.
Poor little bird :'(
Hi Anna
I'm sorry to hear about your poor Greenfinch - but no there is nothing you can do for it especially if you know that it is definitely this awful virus, so I think you need to accept that. Oh heark at me! but it is only because I have had sick birds too that I know how you feel. You can't help but want to do something to help them.
Hi Kezmo,
Thank you very much for your reply.
I reported the death and the new affected bird to the RSPB yesterday. I hope that it will help their research progress so that we can understand better this parasite and help better our wildbirds.
It is so distressful to see them coming to where your feeders used to be and finding nothing. Luckily, there should still be natural food sources available for them.
I know that this is all we can do. It is just such a heartbreaking concept.
Having read the background regarding Trichomoniasis, if you believe you or friends have observed any of the clinical symptoms please help us monitor the spread by completing the attached garden bird disease questionnaire and email it back to us at wildlife@rspb.org.uk
Many thanks
LS
Thanks LS for putting the link in for them.
We haven't seen any cases of trichomoniasis this year but saw a few green finches suffering with it last year. It is really horrible to watch these poor birds suffer such a long slow death and feel so helpless. I wish I was able to just put them out of their agony.