As with everything humans do, there are health risks associated with parrot ownership aside from being bitten. First, one can catch a disease from your bird. Such diseases are called zoonoses. I will go into these in detail later. Another is the development of allergies to your bird or what it eats that can lead to a condition called "bird fancier’s lung." There were also a few small studies suggesting a link between pet bird ownership and cancer. A study by Marabia et al. (1998) has now refuted this linkage. They found no additional risk of lung cancer associated with pet bird ownership even if the owner smokes, although there was a significant linkage with smoking. Thus the two main human health hazards are allergies and zoonoses.

Allergies are, perhaps, the most common health hazard. Worse, you can develop allergies not only to your parrot but to what they eat as well. If it is a food allergy, you can just stop feeding them that particular item. This is a particular problem for those who have an allergy to peanuts. There is also a report of an owner with an allergy to the pine nuts she tasted while feeding her parrot. The most severe condition that can develop is chronic bird fancier’s lung (Ohtani, 2000). This appears to be an unwanted immune response to allergens produced by the bird itself. If you suffer only mild distress from the allergens produced by your bird, and remain committed to owning a parrot, make regular use of a wet mop to clean around the cage, purchase an air-cleaning device, and use a carpet sweeper with a HEPA filter. Although I have never suffered from allergies, several breeders report that the these measures have allowed them to continue to keep their birds. If you buy an air cleaner, invest in a high volume machine that is both effective and quiet. Be advised, the better air cleaners are expensive, and all require frequent and proper maintenance.

A more controversial topic are zoonoses. A zoonose is a disease humans can catch from animals. Almost every kind of pet can give you a zoonose. Rabies is perhaps the most notorious. You can get cat scratch fever, hookworm, roundworm, staph and strep infections from your dog or cat. Poultry are a common source of salmonella food poisoning. Exposure to zoonoses is one of the hazards of pet ownership.

In the case of birds, psittacosis is probably the most troubling. Your veterinarian will call this disease chlamydiosis, but the rest of the world calls it parrot fever. The microbe that causes this disease is a bacterium called Chlamydia psittici and it can only proliferate within a living cell. Disease due to this organism is not uncommon in humans. It is one of the diseases of humans that must be reported to the government. There were 813 cases reported between 1988 and 1998 in the United States (MMWR, 2000). This number is probably an under estimate of its true incidence. Complicating this is the recent discovery of a related organism, C. pneumoniae, that only infects humans but shares antigenic markers with C. psittici. This can lead to misdiagnosis in humans. This newly discovered organism is thought to only infect humans. Still, you need to inform your physician you own a parrot. In humans, the disease is characterized as a transient influenza like disease with nausea, fever, vomiting, headaches, chills and malaise. Many other animals catch this disease including cats, cattle, sheep, mice, goats, and dogs. It is such a common disease of cats and sheep, that there are vaccines available for these animals. Unfortunately there is no vaccine for birds or humans.

It was the publicity surrounding this disease that led to import restrictions in the United States and other countries including England. This prevented the sale of large numbers of parrots after World War II. Only since the beginning of the 1970's have these fears subsided, and parrots become a popular pet again. I know. I always wanted a parrot when I was growing up in the 1950's, but the only parrots I could find were budgies, lovebirds and cockatiels. My Mother, however, had a Mexican red-headed Amazon when she was growing up in the early part of the century that she purchased for $25.

Psittacosis is still with us, and presents a serious problem for bird owners. Fortunately, it can be treated with antibiotics. Both tetracycline and doxycycline are effective against this disease. This disease is no longer considered as dangerous as it once was. The main reason to fear this disease now is that it takes on so many insidious forms in birds that even experienced veterinarians often fail to diagnose it. I have a hand reared female hawk-head parrot purchased directly from a breeder that I took to three different avian specialists before she was correctly diagnosed to have chlamydiosis. If you have other birds, it is often best to just assume any new bird, even a hand reared one, has the disease before you bring it into your flock. The new bird should be tested for chlamydia with one of the new assays (MMWR, 2000) and be isolated from the rest of your flock for at least 45 days. This quarantine and observation period is important not just to prevent the introduction of chlamydiosis into your flock, but to discover if the bird has other infectious diseases that might threaten your other birds. If you can, quarantine the bird at a friend's home who does not have birds so you can keep it as far away from your present pets as possible. At one time I treated all my new birds prophylactically with an exclusive diet of the tetracycline containing pellets or by direct administration of doxycycline. With the advent of reliable diagnostic assays, however, I discontinued this practice.

If you suspect or know your bird is infected, the Centers for Disease Control makes the following recommendations (MMWR, 1998) that should be done under the direction of a qualified veterinarian:

Protect the bird from stress and malnutrition.

Observe the bird daily. Weigh it every few days to be sure it is not losing weight.

Do not administer antibiotics through the drinking water and avoid feeding calcium or other divalent cations.

Isolate the bird in an uncrowded cage away from your other birds.

Clean up spilled food promptly and wash food and water containers daily.

Provide fresh water and food daily.

Be sure to continue the medication for the entire period.

There are other avian zoonoses. These include salmonella infections, which can be contracted not only from birds but from almost any animal, although reptile droppings are thought to be the more common source of these zoonotic infections. Tuberculosis from Mycobacterium avium is infrequently seen. This organism can be devastating for a flock of birds, but usually does not infect healthy humans. A general rule is that most healthy humans are not susceptible to these infections. However, infants, young children, the elderly and immune compromised persons such as those with AIDS are.