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New
birds: Isolation and quarantine guide
Newly purchase birds, birds
that is borrowed for breeding purpose or just returned from a show or even
that is just come back from travel (I didn’t know about you, but I do bring
some of my tame pet cockatiel to travel with me from Kuala Lumpur to Kedah and
Kelantan) has potential source of micro-organisms to all birds which it come
into contacts. Therefore, quarantine is vital for these birds. In Malaysia,
quarantine laws is apply to birds and any other animals in the port of entry
in special quarantine premises.
‘quarantine’ is believed
to comes from the old French official method, quarantre which representing 40
days isolation. However, nowadays it seem that this term is used in broader
term.
Quarantine is a vital process
which I believe no bird breeder or pet bird keeper should take it easy. It is
a valuable tools in preventing entry of epidemic decease or preventing re
entry of those which have been eradicted. In international level, quarantine
is one of the way to suppress livestock deceases such as tuberculosis,
brucellisis glanders, rinderpest and rabbies.
In smaller scale, such as
bird breeders or pet birds owner, quarantine will prevent the animals deceases
to pass from another aviary to enter to another aviary or from a shop to
another shop.
In Malaysia, there were some
quarantine center in the entry point of the country, for example is in Johor
Bharu, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Rantau Panjang in Kelantan.
However, as I know only KLIA quarantine center that have complete facilities
for every animals. In KLIA, MAS Cargo has one interesting service which is
Animal Hotel, which I believed is the best service for transporting animal
especially life animals in
Malaysia.
Regarding the cost of this
quarantine service, it is only few ringgit per day (which the price is
actually different from different type of animals and of course their size –
I believed)
If you are a pet bird owner
in Malaysia and you just have your pet birds travel with you, I would like to
recommend you to have a quick quarantine. You can manage this quarantine
process by yourself. This is of course, I assumes that you observed
your pet birds, and you think there is nothing wrong with your pet birds. If
you found anything (I mean any sign of sickness) you should bring the bird to
the vet immediately and not try to continue to quarantine by your own.
Guide to do a quick
quarantine by your own
I would like to stress that
this is only applicable to pet birds owner who have more than a birds. If you
only have one birds, then the quarantine is not necessary since the main
purpose of this process is to prevent spread of decease from a bird to another
bird.
The first step in this is by
having extra cage and accessories which you will reserve only for
quarantine your birds only. This cage can’t be use in any case to
keep your common stock. The cage must be comfortable for your new birds and
you also must ensure that the birds didn’t feel too stress in this cage. A
stress birds will have less immunity towards any bacteria or decease.
Keep the quarantine cage in
different place from the rest of your cockatiel or birds stock. This cage must
be place in the area that have fresh air, enough light (but not too hot) and
not many activities going on (to make the birds less nervous). This place also
must be easy to access and each time you access, you should not make the birds
afraid or shock. Any other pet or wild birds/ animals must not have any access
to this area.
Any perch or other cage
accessories should not be share with other aviary or cage. Even you yourself
have to clean your hand before and after feeding or visit this area. One tips
from me is that you can feed your healthy bird cockatiel before go to your
quarantine cage or sick birds. (even this, you still should wash your hand and
yourself before and after each cage). This is because sometimes even we as a
human can be the agent to spread the decease. This is one of the reasons why
some of the birds breeder didn’t allowed outside person to visit their
breeding aviary.
The quarantine area must be
keep clean and the birds should be provided with good and healthy food as your
other birds. You also should check and observe this birds everyday. If you
feel anything is wrong with your bird, immediately bring her to see the Vet.
After says 14-15 days pass
and if your quarantine birds is healthy, you can put them back to your main
cage or aviary. Then, all the quarantine cage and its accessories should be
disinfectant and keep nicely in your store until next birds is coming.
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