Symptoms, causes and prevention of Pigeon PMV

PMV is a viral infection that can be a deadly disease if left untreated. It is extremely contagious and can even infect entire flocks which means you must catch and isolate the pigeon to avoid the spreading of the disease. It requires supportive care such as giving of electrolytes, vitamins and probiotics. You can read more about how to give supportive care here: https://nowaics.wixsite.com/pigeontalk/blog/how-to-cure-pmv.

Pigeon Paramoxovirus can damage the nervous system. Some pigeons however can make a very quick recovery, fastest being 3+ weeks. Others may take as long as 11 weeks for the symptoms to clear. In rare cases residual nervous symptoms may reside for the rest of their lives and the pigeon will then become classed as 'unreleasable'. It is also not uncommon for the disease to return weeks or months after. It does not, however, mean that the pigeon has caught the disease again.

Causes:

• Direct contact through contaminated water, feed or litter.

• Direct contact through droppings

• Dust from feathers

Symptoms:

• Extremely loose, watery droppings (solid particles in a pool of liquid)

• Lack of appetite especially in young birds

• Ruffled feathers (especially in advanced stages)

• Poor coordination (especially in advanced stages)

• Paralysis of wings and legs (more common in advanced stages)

• In severe cases birds will show the 'twisted neck' symptoms.

• Staggering

• Crash landing

• Difficulty picking up seeds (pecking and missing)

• Tossing seed backwards over its head

• Turning in circles

• Having fits

• Suddenly dropping off to sleep, head slumped forward

• Pulling head backwards toward the tail

Despite the severity of the symptoms the pigeons don't often appear to be in discomfort or ill, we tend to describe them as "otherwise well"!

Prevention

Currently the only preventative method used to effectively prevent PMV is the PMV-1 vaccine. Do not confuse LaSota vaccine with it however, as it is not effective in producing antibodies for PMV. LaSota is mainly used for the treatment of Newcastle Disease which is almost non-existent in pigeons.

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