Human psittacosis is rare, and death associated with the infection in humans extremely rare. The aviculture community would like to keep it that way. So please do your part as responsible bird owners to keep all bird owners and especially new bird owners informed about this disease. Clinical signs associated with the illness in pet birds include depression, anorexia, green diarrhea, difficulty breathing, choanal inflammation and nasal discharge. The chlamydial organism affects the liver and other major vital organs.
Green diarrhea is associated with the hepatitis that occurs during an avian chlamydiosis infection.
In large aviaries, especially cockatiel aviaries, neonatal death is common, especially before weaning, due to the shedding of the infectious organism by the immune stressed parents. As mentioned previously, young bird death occurs most frequently during the second, third and fourth clutches. If the aviculturist does not identify and treat the disease properly, it will become subclinical and affect future breeding success. The chlamydial organism is an intracellular bacteria that makes it difficult to treat, and infected birds must be treated for a 45-day period. The drug of choice is tetracycline or a tetracycline derivative such as doxycycline.