Viral disease turns pigeons into “zombies”; understand

One The disease is turning pigeons into live zombies in the UK. So far, the virus has infected a flock in Jersey, where some of the birds have had to be euthanized. An animal sanctuary has warned of an “invariably dangerous viral disease” and its symptoms.

Pigeons infected with paramyxovirus, also known as PPMV or Newcastle disease, experienced a variety of neurological symptoms. A violently twisted neck and quivering wings. They are also emaciated, have green stools, walk in circles, often cannot fly and are reluctant to move.

The disease does not affect humans. However, there have been reports of people contracting conjunctivitis after handling sick birds.News sites such as the New York Post, The Mirror and The Sun have reported outbreaks of the disease in the UK.

“In recent weeks there has been an increase in the number of ground pigeons entering the JSPCA Animal Shelter, many of which have neurological symptoms of a deadly viral infection that affects pigeons, doves and birds,” said a spokesperson for the JSPCA Animals Shelter on the Island of Jersey.

A spokeswoman for the Animal Care Agency said it was a notifiable disease in captive birds. [o que significa que os casos suspeitos devem ser comunicados às autoridades]But not in wild birds.

Pigeons sometimes suffer from injuries that make them unable to balance or fly well. A spokeswoman for the shelter said the disease cannot be treated, and many birds die within days.

Cases in Brazil
According to Agência Fapesp, cases of paramyxovirus in birds have already been identified in Brazil. In 2019, pigeons were found dead or dying near the Zoonosis Control Center in São Paulo. This happened a few days before the weather event that turned day into night in the capital city of São Paulo.

The two cases were thought to be common, but the researchers found that the birds were infected with avian paramyxovirus type 1 — also known as Newcastle disease virus — with a genotype called VI.2.1 that was lethal to pigeons.

“We discovered that this is a virus that has been quietly circulating in Brazil since 2014. Based on the molecular data, we observed that it was the same PPMV identified in Porto Alegre. [RS] Five years ago. And there are about 1,100 kilometers between the two cities. This fact demonstrates the ability of this pathogen to spread unnoticed,” Luciano Matsumia Tomaselli, researcher at the Clinical and Molecular Virology Laboratory of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the University of São Paulo (ICB-USP), told Agência Fapespp. .