I
trained in veterinary medicine at the Ontario
Veterinary College, University of Toronto, from
which I graduated in 1961. I entered private veterinary
practice as an assistant to practitioner for about
a year, after which I joined the Alberta gov't
(Dep't of Agriculture) in its veterinary diagnostic
service, conducting post mortem examinations on
domestic poultry and other livestock, wildlife,
fish and zoo animals....
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During
the summer of 2001, I received a basic question from
the editor of the British Homing World about the amount
of actual evidence that exists with regard to the
effects of disease and performance in racing pigeons.
In that context, he also asked..... "How much
research has actually been carried out by the veterinary
profession on the health of birds in top performing
lofts in relation to the actual performance of individual
birds? For example, has much testing been done on
pigeons just prior to basketing for a race, with these
results then being studied alongside the actual performance
of the birds?"
This was, really, a very interesting, incisive question,
and one for which I am embarrassed to say, I had no
ready answer. Accordingly, over the next few weeks,
I contacted quite a number of my veterinary colleagues
and some knowledgeable fanciers here in North America,
as well as some in South Africa, Australia, the UK
and Europe.
The uniform answer to this question was that no one
who responded to my inquiry was aware that the kind
of veterinary study mentioned had ever been carried
out or published. It would therefore seem that such
a study has yet to be done and published, at least
by the veterinary profession.
In the light of these questions, I also mentioned
to my veterinary colleagues and the fanciers I contacted,
the example of an oocyst count of 96,000 found in
one British fancier's birds after they had flown poorly
from a 700-mile race.
(Oocysts are the egg-like stage of the coccidial life
cycle found in droppings. They are what fanciers refer
to as "cocci counts". To me, at the microscopic
level, oocysts very much resemble hard-boiled eggs
that have been cut in cross section or lengthwise,
depending on the species of coccidia involved.) The
following information is taken from replies from individuals
who responded, and from one published report.
On the question of coccidia in pigeons, one veterinary
reference from Britain (Wallis, AS. 1991. Common conditions
of domestic pigeons. In Practice, pps 96-100) indicated
that "a count that was under 3,000 oocysts per
gram (opg) of droppings was considered to be normal,
with no expected response to treatment. A count of
3,000-20,000 opg was considered to be moderate, with
treatment often providing a significant improvement
in performance.
A count of 20,000-50,000 opg was considered to be
severe, with improvement in condition and performance
as a response to treatment. A count of greater than
50,000 opg was considered to be very severe, with
marked improvement in the associated clinical picture
following treatment. However, Wallis also made the
point that counts greater than 100,000 opg had been
seen occasionally, without evidence of any observable
abnormality in the birds shedding these large numbers
of oocysts.
