Takeaways on avian respiratory diseases

Lauren Thielen, DVM, DiplABVP (Avian Practice), clinical assistant professor of exotic medicine at Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine in New York, sat down with dvm360 to talk about her upcoming lecture, Avian Respiratory Disease: Tackling the Tail Bob. Her lecture will be presented tomorrow, September 27, at the Southwest Veterinary Symposium in Fort Worth, Texas. Thielen shared that the session will include a discussion on infectious avian respiratory diseases like chlamydia and aspergillosis—the most common fungal respiratory disease among birds. During the interview, Thielen also explained that she will be focusing on how to distinguish a respiratory disease from a non-respiratory disease, as well as why birds get respiratory diseases.

Below is a partial transcript:

Lauren Thielen, DVM, DiplABVP (Avian Practice): The lecture talking about the avian respiratory system, definitely talks about some specific infectious diseases. The main ones we talk about are chlamydia and aspergillosis, which aspergillosis is the most common fungal disease of birds, and definitely the most common fungal respiratory disease of birds.

But really what the talk also focuses on is being able to even know the difference between respiratory disease versus non respiratory disease because birds have a very unique anatomy. And so things that cause a bird to present not being able to breathe actually may be something that's not even respiratory at all. And then [the lecture] also really talks about, you know, how a lot of these birds, the reason why they get respiratory diseases is because of many environmental or nutritional factors. And so I really talk a lot about, you know, okay, yes, we have some infectious diseases we need to deal with. And we're going to obviously talk about…how to diagnose those and treat them. Spoiler, they're very, very frustrating to diagnose and treat. But…I really [like to] talk a lot about preventative medicine, so that way we can try to get these birds to be as healthy as possible so they don't fall…susceptible to these really serious illnesses.