A few days after the first post-plague parrot release, the nightwatchman’s flashlight picks out two African Greys come back to pass the night near their friends.
Finally, the Kisangani Caretakers can relax. No more dawn rushes to the Parrot Conservation Center because the night watchman announced parrot deaths during the night. No more going through the gymnastics of sending frozen parrot carcasses to Kinshasa, hoping the Vet Clinic might come up with a successful treatment.
The three caretakers at the Kisangani Parrot Conservation Center (PCC) are, from left, Stanie, Chimène and Ben.
Close observations of the Kisangani parrots by Steven Janssen, World Parrot Trust veterinarian, led him to suspect bacterial infection, perhaps several different bacteria responsible. He proposed wide-spectrum drugs in adequately high doses over a long-enough period to knock out the persistent pathogens. This was important as probably only the most resistant bacteria were left, as we had been under-dosing with antibiotics since the end of 2025.
The caretakers, Stanie, Chimène and Ben, learned technique and procedure – thank you Steven:
- They gave the sick parrots intra-muscular injections twice a day;
- They measured out dosages to give orally and upped concentrations on Steven’s recommendation;
Caretakers handling a sick parrot.
- They learned to keep newly arrived parrots separate from parrots already at the center;
- They all rolled up sleeves for “deep cleaning” whenever birds were moved.
Ben cleaning one of the flight-cages.
The epidemic months were October through March; during this period, we lost 71 African Grey Parrots, more than a third of the parrots that were present.
But only 4 parrots died in April, and the last death was just after Steven’s visit. With the new treatments and early detection of disease, three sick birds recovered. This was a first!
In May there were no sick birds.
The same is true so far, this first half of June.
Even better, procedural lessons learned are already being used at our other two Parrot Centers;
Best of all, once-sick parrots are now recovering flight capacity and will be part of future releases.
Our first Kisangani release after the epidemic.
