My Kids and I are coming down with a cold or flu thing for the first time in AGES!!

 

In the past when i have been sick, i always assume i am contageous to the birds and have minimal contact with them until we are feeling better...

 

Are birds actually suseptable to human viruses ????

Edited June 1, 200817 yr by **Liv**

Generally no. Viruses (like parasites) are specific to certain species. There are some zoonotic (can spread to all species) viruses. But I do not think that this is the common cold. I think that human colds and flu (which is often a poorly diagnosed cold, the flu is a lot worse than a cold, some people seem to think they are one and the same, they are not) are not zoonotic. My birds have never picked up my illness. Rodents however are susceptible to our colds. So pet guinea pigs, mice, rats and hamsters should have minimal contact with you when you are sick.

Thanks Sailorwolf

Thats great information. Very interesting!

I know a mouse or two i think i need to sneeze on too hehehe

There is a lot of information available about zoonoses afflicting humans but less the other way around, probably because we tend to focus on the impact on our own species. Also there are diseases transmitted between different animal species. The potential is there for budgies to become ill from their human owners illnesses, though the further apart we are on the genetic tree, the likelihood of crossing species boundaries is lower than human to human transmission, or even human to other mammal transmission.

 

I still would recommend caution if either human or budgie is sick both ways, as microbes can mutate and cross species boundaries. Infections can be mild and subclinical but that does not preclude them from causing long term complications. Hygiene is very important and prevention is the best cure. Eating wholesome food, drinking lots of fresh filtered water and washing hands before and after handling animals, food or bedding, is simple and effective. Ofcourse if you have a respiratory infection, coughing infected droplets into your hand and then touching doorknobs, telephones, shaking hands, touching the budgie will spread viruses and bacteria everywhere and to the next person who touches those things and then scratches their nose ... use disposable tissues and wash hands.

 

Though, we don't live in a sterile environment. (In fact, animals that are raised in a sterile environment have very poor immune systems because they are never challenged, so they don't develop appropriate responses and therefore succumb easily to infection.) Good hygiene should be sufficient, unless the immune system is compromised.

Sorry, But yeah they can, especailly if they like to give kisses ...(never kiss your bird directly on the beak or offer food that you have biten / eating ) the bacteria from your mouth transfers to the budgie / birds and they are pron to get anything baterial / viral infections you / kids are carring - with the whole sneezez and coughing, I don't think that would as when starsky and Margoo were our only birds they were in side and kids are always sick this didn't affect the birds - But insaying that, i guess general hygene with colds and flu is always the best bet .....

Careful with what you mean by the degree of zoonosis. Viruses are usually very species specific, they don't often like to cross the species boundary. Bacteria are different, they can cross much more easily to a different species, although there are many that do much better in certain species. Colds and influenza are viruses, therefore they are much less likely to affect your bird and also why antibiotics don't cure them.

Most viruses rely on the host's DNA to replicate, hence (I guess) their specificity.

 

Point of interest: As far as I know you cannot cure viruses, because viruses depend on the host cell to replicate and thus they live inside the cell. Anything that targets a virus will also target the host cell and kill it. Therefore, with viruses, treatment is mainly easing symptoms making it easier for the host's immunity to deal with the virus. So basically bacteria can be cured, viruses can be treated. That's why the herpes virus (cold sore amongst others) actually stays in your body forever. Some viruses can be destroyed by your immune system, like the cold and chicken pox, but other viruses insert their own DNA into your DNA, so that every time, your cell replicates, it duplicates its own DNA and the virus's DNA and more little Viruses can spread out and infect. However if your immune system is strong it prevents them spreading, but because of this viruses can stay dormant in your body and will emerge when your immune system is down, hence the reason why you get cold sores when you're stressed. (And not all bacteria can be cured, as some, like tuberculosis, live inside the cell, thus the body just walls them off so the bacteria can't escape).

Thought that might be of interest to some people

Edited June 2, 200817 yr by Sailorwolf

There are a great many types of microbes (prions, single or double stranded rna or dna viruses, virus-like bacteria, bacteria (with or without cell walls), protists, fungi etc, etc, etc, et al). Some schools of thought don't classify prions, viruses or virus-like intracellular bacteria like the rickettsias and chlamydiae (psittacosis is a type of chlamydiae) as being "alive", but meh... semantics... whatever... they still cause diseases when they hijack your body cells.Life is dynamic and always changing. We live in a sea of microbes. Our bodies are like little planets full of them, and would not function without a healthy balance of them and that balance is very individual and heritable, and may have permanent or transient changes with exposure/environment.You are more microbial DNA than human DNA.Good hygiene, good natural nutrition and clean filtered water to boost natural immunity, intact skin (clean and protect wounds), adequate ventilation, and disposing of waste thoughtfully should be sufficient to prevent most major problems.Have you ever noticed that when you give your birds a medication to treat one disease, sometimes something else gets out of balance and causes a different disease? Or even if you take a medication to treat something in yourself, like an antibiotic, you end up with another problem. Tangled web we weave.Survival of the best cared for... Hmm...Viruses etc can be eliminated with electromagnetic energy and sound resonance, but might have other untoward effects on the host organism.

A little but prions are considered not alive because they are just slightly mutated proteins. Viruses are considered un alive because they don't grow or eat.

Most microbes you will find have preferred hosts because they will be adapted to them, although with some there is nothing stopping them from growing elsewhere as some are quite broad in their requirements. Bacteria are alive.

The reason why we have more bacterial DNA in our bodies than our own is because mitochondria (the little organelles in our cells that produce energy) were originally bacteria that was either swallowed by or invaded a primitive cell and have thus been incorporated into our cells design and needs. You'll find that mitochondria have their own DNA (often they do mitochondrial DNA sampling for parentage tests and ID, I think). The other large amounts of bacterial DNA in our system would be those accounted to the many species that inhabit our gut and skin mutually.

Mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited in humans - from the female, not sure about birds. Meh... I looked it up, birds too maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA. Most things maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA.

 

So it would seem that if mitochondria were an ancient bacteria engulfed by the ancestors of eukaryotic cells, that bacteria and viruses etc have an important role in evolution. I'm not in any hurry to evolve though by exposing myself unnecessarily to them!!!

 

Although, milk maids infected with cowpox had conferred immunity to smallpox. Ah, the origins of vaccinations.

 

I love budgies, so many tangents of learning.

Edited June 2, 200817 yr by DrNat