Avian bornavirus (ABV) was discovered recently in parrots with proventricular dilatation disease (PDD), a fatal neurological disease. Although ABV has been shown to be a causative agent of PDD, the virological characteristics of ABV are largely unknown. Here we report the detection of ABV genotype 5 RNA in Eclectus roratus with feather picking disorder (FPD). Interestingly, the bird was persistently infected with ABV5 at least for 8 months without clinical sings of PDD. Although it remains unclear whether ABV5 is associated with FPD, these findings raise the importance of epidemiological studies of birds with diseases other than PDD. The report is from the Laboratory of Human Tumor Viruses, Department of Viral Oncology, Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, and Vogel Animal Hospital, Hyogo, Japan.
Horie M, Ueda K, Ueda A, et al. Microbiol Immunol 2012 Feb 6 [Epub ahead of print].