Disease strikes endangered orange-bellied parrots in Tasmanian breeding colony

Orange Bellied parrots. Image by OwenYBThe Federal Government is attempting to speed up action over a fatal disease in Australia's most critically endangered wild bird, the orange-bellied parrot.

Threatened Species Commissioner Gregory Andrews said he wanted to boost the parrot's captive population as part of an urgent response to an outbreak of beak and feather disease.

"This bird is right on the edge of an extinction precipice in the wild," Mr Andrews said on Monday. "We are determined not to let it go over."

Around 64 wild parrots flew out of their single Tasmanian breeding colony this autumn for Victorian coastal wintering grounds. Of those, 27 were captive-bred and released last summer, an annual report said.

Evidence of the disease is said to have been found at the Melaleuca breeding colony in the south-west wilderness five months ago.

Obvious clinical signs were discovered in January in two precious clutches, each of four nestlings, hatched at Melaleuca, Fairfax Media has been told.

The nestlings were listless and shedding feathers when they were inspected. However no treatment was given, and their nest boxes were not revisited.

They are believed to have died, reducing the true count of migrating birds. At least one sick adult was also seen at a Melaleuca feeding table.

Subsequently, national recovery team meetings for the bird was marked by the absence of Tasmanian Government officers, but Mr Andrews said the state had not withdrawn from the team.

He said he received the state's scientific report confirming the outbreak last Thursday, and all of the orange-bellied parrot's recovery team had agreed to attend the urgent meeting next week at Melbourne Zoo.

To meet the crisis, Mr Andrews said he was proposing:

• to boost captive breeding;
• a screening program for beak and feather disease;
• to review the bird's "out of date" threat abatement plan;
• and adjust captive management to reduce the spread of disease.

Mr Andrews said the Tasmanian Government report was "very clear" that the disease had not reached the wild population from birds that were captive bred either by it, or by Melbourne's Healesville Sanctuary.

"It was probably already in the wild birds and they brought it back from the mainland," he said.

Beak and feather disease is a naturally occurring bird illness that, like influenza in humans, hits the young and the weak.

Eric Woehler, convenor of BirdLife Australia's Tasmanian branch, said: "The concern is that with fewer than 70 birds in the wild, a disease outbreak like this can just basically pick the population off completely."

Comment is sought from the Tasmanian Government.