© 2005 FFI, Oryx, 39(4), 1–6 doi:10.1017/S0030605305001110 Printed in the United Kingdom 1 Abstract Bird-keeping is an extremely popular pastime in Indonesia, where there is a thriving internal market in both wild-caught and captive-bred birds. However, little is known about whether the scale of bird-keeping represents a genuine conservation threat to native populations. Here we present the res...

With interest we read the article of Saito et al. that describes a severe case of chlamydiosis in humans (3). However, according to us two major points need to be clarified. The taxonomy of chlamydiae has been illustrated in 1999 by Everett et al. (1), and such classification is accepted universally, as evidenced by a number of manuscripts published in recent years. Classification is based on d...

With interest we read the article of Saito et al. that describes a severe case of chlamydiosis in humans (3). However, according to us two major points need to be clarified. The taxonomy of chlamydiae has been illustrated in 1999 by Everett et al. (1), and such classification is accepted universally, as evidenced by a number of manuscripts published in recent years. Classification is based on d...

Background Hundreds of millions of domestic carnivores worldwide have diverse positive affiliations with humans, but can provoke serious socio-ecological impacts when free-roaming. Unconfined dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus) interact with wildlife as predators, competitors, and disease-transmitters; their access to wildlife depends on husbandry, perceptions, attitudes, and behavio...

Psittacosis infection is usually reported in adults aged around 30 to 60 years. We report here two cases of psittacosis in an elderly couple (76 and 77 years old) who jointly ran a pet shop. Psittacosis was diagnosed from a history of exposure to birds and from serological testing for Chlamydophilia avium.

Avian medicine is a relatively recent discipline in the veterinary curriculum, and is definitely not considered a topical issue. However, in the face of a growing demand for poultry meat worldwide, and in view of the health issues surrounding wild, exotic and pet birds, the relevance of avian medicine should be acknowledged and taken into account when revising curricula.