Confiscated parrots might arrive sick to our Center. The red-fronted parrots – a load of fifty – was our first such experience.
Two red-fronted parrots from the infected confiscation. These still have not flown from the Parrot Conservation Center (PCC).
A few of them seemed club-footed, asthmatic, feeble… and then more started wheezing. Cruising the internet, we thought it must be Marek’s disease, most common in poultry. Even with isolation of the obviously sick, we lost more than half.
But studying the internet for parrot diseases is frightening. We needed a vet.
Steve, the vet, second from left, presented to local veterinarians and vet students.
Although the main source of African Grey parrots is DR Congo (red-fronted are more widespread), none of the veterinarians in the heart of parrot country know about parrot diseases. Parrots are rarely kept as pets here; people have chickens in the yard, goats wander the village and, in the case of the wealthy, wetlands are drained to graze cattle. We had a scary moment when a cattle vet overdosed many of our parrots.
Steve evaluated the infrastructure at the PCC.
We contacted World Parrot Trust. Could they help? Here were our vet needs:
- Evaluate and teach our keepers,
- Inspect all the parrots in rehabilitation – what is their status? ; what health care is needed?,
- Bring essential pharmaceuticals not available in DR Congo.
In successive days at the PCC, Steve worked closely with the staff.
World Parrot Trust (WPT) recently hired an African Parrot Veterinarian, Steve Janssen. To our relief, WPT was also ready to cover the costs of a visit! Steve added a few items to our terms of reference:
- Inspect and advise on the infrastructure for rehabilitation,
- Check diet and release protocols,
- Assure adequate registers are being kept.
A Sankuru parrot keeper, happy to be with us, speaks the first day of introductions at the PCC- Parks station baraza.
Steve arrived on October 23rd. Over the next two and half weeks our vet needs and Steve’s own vet protocol were covered – and a great time was had by all.
Steve gave the hands-on help that was needed.
We got some good advice, and better yet, advice that we can follow in the middle of Africa.
Our parrot keepers received a serious dose of training…and there were others, too, that participated in Dingi’s outdoor classroom:
- local vets, and
- a vet student-to-be who had been a parrot volunteer, and
- importantly, two parrot keepers from Sankuru.
Sankuru is the second province, after Maniema Province, that has put in place a law forbidding parrot trade.
Outreach material in Sankuru after a decree was passed.
With the help of one of his students, Steve gained access to high school microscopes to demonstrate the importance of examining blood and feces for diagnoses.
During the training, only evenings held the Center’s usual calm.
After the training: Steve shot past John on Kindu’s morning bike rides, appreciated Congo’s beer, and returned to Congo at the end of November to help with the parrot repatriation.
In Kindu, John and Steve take a morning bike ride.
With one of the 113 parrots repatriated from Turkey and a keeper at the Kinshasa Zoo.
Perhaps Steve’s next visit will be to help set up another rehabilitation center in yet another province after it legally forbids parrot trade, making confiscations and arrests possible.
