page_title: Pacheco's disease
section_title: Treatment
hierarchical_section_title: Pacheco's disease / Treatment
caption_attribution_description: English: Acyclovir 3D image.
context_page_description: Pacheco’s disease is a highly infectious and acute bird disease caused by a species of herpesvirus, Psittacid alphaherpesvirus 1. All psittacine species are susceptible to Pacheco’s disease, mainly those in zoological collections and aviaries in any geographic regions. Specifically, Pacheco’s disease has a high occurrence rate in Amazon parrots, followed by African grey parrots, parrots, macaws, cockatoos and conures. Due to a very high mortality rate within these susceptible species, concerns are brought to companion bird markets and breeders.
  The main sign of Pacheco’s disease is a sudden and rapid death of birds. It is often preceded by short, severe illnesses, which includes diarrhoea, lethargy, anorexia and inactivity. The virus is transmitted between birds through ingestion, by contaminated food or water, as well as through inhalation and conjunctival exposure. The rate that the virus can spread is highly influenced by its environment and living conditions. Birds can then develop signs and symptoms weeks after being in contact with the virus. If a bird survives Pacheco’s disease, it may later develop internal papilloma disease in its gastrointestinal tract.
context_section_description: There is no effective vaccine that completely cures Pacheco’s disease in infected birds. It is difficult to establish an effective treatment for Pacheco’s disease as birds can suddenly die without displaying any symptoms. However, there have been successful uses of acyclovir, an antiviral medication, in reducing high death rates by rapidly inhibiting the virus replication within the birds. Acyclovir is a synthetic acyclic purine nucleoside that has strong activity against certain members of the herpesvirus group. It is given to birds in the form of oral administration for numerous days or in an IV form. Acyclovir has decreased morbidity and mortality during multiple Pacheco’s disease outbreaks. However, it cannot prevent the establishment of the carrier and latent infections. This means that acyclovir cannot be used to cure the virus infection and infected birds will remain infected and become a carrier throughout its lifetime. 
  An autogenous, formalin-inactivated vaccine, with an adjuvant of aluminium, hydroxide gel, has similarly been used in an outbreak, in 1999, to successfully protect psittacine birds from Pacheco’s disease. This vaccine was used to stop the rapid spread of the virus and helped maintain morbidity and mortality rates in psittacine birds within the zoo. By injecting this in the birds, it effectively contained the outbreak, where no herpesvirus was isolated from faecal samples of the many psittacine birds after the outbreak occurred.
caption: The molecular structure of Acyclovir, an antiviral medication that acts as an inhibitor to reduce the replication rate of the virus within affected birds.
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