Killer disease hits native parrots

Rare native parrots such as the kakapo and red-fronted parakeet could be at risk from a fatal new disease.

Scientists from Canterbury and Massey universities, fearful that a new strain of beak and feather virus will spread, are calling for stricter screening of the critically endangered parrots. They say it is essential that monitoring and testing are done on birds chosen for breeding, or the disease – for which there is no treatment – will spread further.

The scientists are concerned that the virus will reach the only 123 living kakapo, subject to an extensive monitoring programme on Codfish Island, off Stewart Island, and Anchor Island in Dusky Sound. Red-fronted parakeets are known to live on Anchor Island.

"The real question is not is it [the virus] present or not; the real question is how long before it hits them," ecologist Luis Ortiz-Catedral said.

The eastern rosella, an introduced Australian bird, was known to carry strains of the beak and feather virus. He likened the spread of the virus to the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand and the introduction of influenza.

Although the spread of beak and feather disease could be controlled within populations being bred, its spread in the wild could not. To control the spread, every bird would need to be tested because adult carriers sometimes had no signs of the disease before passing it on to their chicks.

Mr Ortiz-Catedral has been monitoring red-fronted parakeets on Little Barrier Island near Auckland. Blood testing had revealed a new type of the highly infectious, incurable and potentially fatal beak and feather disease, with infected birds having deformed beaks and feather loss. No dead birds had been found on the island, where 25 per cent were found to be infected, but Mr Ortiz-Catedral said a similar virus found in Mauritian parrots raised the risk of death by 80 per cent. He was also worried the virus would spread to the critically endangered orange-fronted parakeet.

Kakapo programme scientist Ron Moorhouse said now the virus had been detected in a wild native species, work was needed to minimise its spread. It was vital that people did not free exotic pet parrots, as they had the potential to spread disease to rare native species.

All 123 kakapo would be tested for the virus in the coming months.