Giardia and Birds

[MarcusCAG]

Okay, yes, I was lurking a bit in the Welcome Room just now. I noticed that in one thread Dave007 commented to a new member something to the effect of "parrots don't get worms". I was surprised by that statement, because I remembered reading something somewhere that had a picture of a cockatiel that looked like it had been through the ringer, and was described as having a condition called giardia. The caption made it sound like the avian equivalent of hookworms or some such. Anyway, so I just Googled giardia now, and apparently it's not a type of invasive parasitic worm, but a protozoan parasite.

 

So my question is, since apparently it's transmitted through dirty water and excrement and such from person to person: Is that how birds get it too? Could a human have it and not know it and then give it to their parrot? I know some parasites are transmittable from animals (mammals) to humans and vice versa. And that poor cockatiel in the picture looked pretty bad! I'm just wondering if anybody really knows anything about this since when I did a Search here just now I pretty much came back with nothing, no threads about it particularly or anything...

[Dave007]

Everything you wanted to know. There's no vaccine--tells where it comes from--it explains how it's spread--explains how other animals such as domestic animals don't get it --explains that there is rarely a cure----explains what they previously used in order to treat it--explains that all birds can get it----explains that people don't get it because there's another form of the disease that only people can get. Like many other bird diseases, it isn't diagnosed until after the infection has set in and since it comes from outside sources there's no vaccine for it.

http://www.exoticpetvet.net/avian/giardia.html

Edited March 11, 2011 by Dave007

[MarcusCAG]

Thanks, Dave! A longer read but yes, answered everything.