Forty-three Years of Progress in Pet Bird Nutrition

For much of the last forty-three years, avian veterinarians have been occupied with developing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures for companion birds. Birds have often been presented in an emergency condition, and many of these birds died. In the late 70's, the most conspicuous causes were related to importation (eg, infectious diseases, parasites, immunosuppression from overuse of antibiotics) or poor management associated with companion bird breeding facilities. Veterinarians were concerned about putting out these disease "fires," so preventive medicine was not much of a consideration.