Strictly for the Birds

Millions of Americans--the estimates run between 8,000,000 and 10,000,000--keep parakeets for pets, and every year about 300 happy bird owners come down with psittacosis ("parrot fever," also called ornithosis). Before the discovery of antibiotics, psittacosis was unbeatable, killed scores of people in the U.S. This led to a federal embargo on all members of the parrot family--they still cannot be imported for sale. But last week, famed old (74) Virologist Karl F. Meyer was hailed at Stockholm's International Congress for Microbiology for a research victory that was strictly for the birds: he has found a way to keep parakeets (or budgerigars ) free of the psittacosis virus simply by feeding them seed treated with a common antibiotic. More important, when the budgies shake the disease, they cease to be a threat to their owners.

Dr. Meyer has put in 40 years as a specialist in bird and animal diseases, most of the time at the University of California's Hooper Foundation for Medical Research, of which he is director emeritus. There he developed an effective way of keeping parakeets free of the psittacosis virus by frequent injections of chlortetracycline (Aureomycin). But the injection method was costly and impractical for most budgie owners. Backed by Manhattan's Hartz Mountain Products Corp. (bird feeds and medications), Dr. Meyer spent three more years finding an effective way to impregnate the birds' feed with the antibiotic in a uniform and stable concentration. A few months ago, Dr. Meyer put a batch of disease-ridden parakeets on his medicated seed, sent another batch to the University of Texas' Dr. Morris Pollard in Galveston for a double check.

In both tests, parakeets were fed on a schedule of two days on millet seed enriched with Aureomycin, one day on plain feed. After 15 days, virtually all became virus-free. Hartz Mountain will begin marketing the treated feed in September, and parakeet owners can relax at last. Dr. Meyer's next project: a medicated feed for table birds, especially turkeys, which are also subject to ornithosis epidemics (TIME, March 26, 1956).

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