What can you get from birds?
Last reviewed: 20.11.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Today, agriculture, food industry, entertainment and services are quite widely developed. We have the opportunity to contact various animals and food. In zoos, at exhibitions, in pet stores, you can meet a large number of both domestic and exotic animals, birds. Agriculture, agro-industrial complex works diligently for poultry breeding. Many contain a bird on the backyard, in houses and apartments. The bird has become not only an object of the food industry, but also a faithful friend and companion of life, with which we contact in city parks, zoological parks, at home. Interest in the bird does not decrease. But at the same time, anxiety also increases. There is a natural question: how can you get infected from a bird? In fact, the question is twofold and contains two subtexts: how can you get infected by contacting domestic and poultry, and how can you get infected while eating poultry.
What diseases can you get from birds?
Often birds are carriers of such diseases as salmonellosis, pseudotuberculosis, campylobacteriosis, colibacillosis, listeriosis, pasteurellosis. In addition, birds can provoke an allergy.
According to veterinarians, urban, domestic and domestic birds are most often affected by trichomoniasis and ornithosis. They pose a risk to humans. Most people believe that the most dangerous is an agricultural and wild bird, but it is not. The greatest risk of infection - from domestic, decorative birds, in particular, from parrots.
By trichomoniasis it is necessary to understand an infectious disease, in which the genitourinary tracts in man and animals become inflamed. The cause is the microorganism Trichomonas. Even if the bird is not sick, it can be the carrier of this infection. Pathogens may persist for up to 2 hours in the environment. Therefore, if you do not wash your hands after contact with the bird. You can get yourself such a disease. The danger is that the disease in the early stages develops asymptomatically, but in the end can lead to infertility, inflammatory processes of the genitourinary system. Often these infections provoke the development of cancerous tumors.
It means an acute infectious disease that affects both domestic and wild birds. It is observed in winter. The main route of transmission through the respiratory tract. The causative agent is chlamydia, which in the human body can cause numerous pathologies. The danger of this disease is that it is difficult to treat because the pathogen is an intracellular parasite. Not every drug can penetrate the cell. Microorganisms produce toxins, as a result of which strong intoxication can develop. In the absence of treatment, it can result in damage to the liver, kidneys, brain, and heart.
According to WHO, approximately 10% of all cases of acute pneumonia are caused by chlamydia, which are carried by birds. These are the so-called, ornithic pneumonia.
Vertyachka is a disease that mostly affects pigeons. The pathogenesis is based on the defeat of the central nervous system. Pigeons begin to make uncontrolled turns with their heads. They often die from dislocation of the neck or from exhaustion, seizures. A person can manifest after contact with the bird in the form of conjunctivitis, swelling of the lymph nodes.
Children who are in constant contact with poultry and employees of agriculture are especially sick. When infection with ornithosis, the first signs are similar to a cold. There is a chill, a shiver in the body. The temperature may rise. Gradually, there is pain in the throat, runny nose, perspiration. It becomes painful to swallow, there is pain in the eyes.
Prevention of ornithosis is simple enough and reduces to the need for personal hygiene, rules of contact with the bird. So, hands should be washed thoroughly after each contact. Most of the infection is transferred through the hands. It is necessary to monitor your immunity, since people with reduced immunity are at the most risk of getting sick. This requires a full-fledged diet, timely provision of the body with all the necessary nutrients, vitamins.
The timely diagnosis of infection is important. To do this, it is necessary to regularly undergo preventive examinations, to pass tests for infections, including hidden ones. The main danger of ornithosis, and other diseases that are transmitted through birds, is that they are asymptomatic. At the same time, serious violations occur in the body, immunity decreases. A few months, and sometimes years later, the disease manifests itself in the form of severe metabolic disorders, chronic inflammatory diseases.
If you identify the disease at an early stage, you can take the necessary measures to treat it. Methods of early diagnosis are various bacteriological, immunological methods. The most accurate method is molecular-genetic, for example PCR. With the help of these methods, infection can be detected in a timely manner.