Health hazards posed by feral pigeons

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Abstract

A comprehensive literature search of epidemiological studies and reports of transmissions of disease from feral pigeons to humans was performed. There were 176 documented transmissions of illness from feral pigeons to humans reported between 1941 and 2003. Feral pigeons harbored 60 different human pathogenic organisms, but only seven were transmitted to humans. Aerosol transmission accounted for 99.4% of incidents. There was a single report of transmission of Salmonella enterica serotype Kiambu to humans from feral pigeons, and no reports of transmission of Campylobacter spp. The most commonly transmitted pathogens continue to be Chlamydophila psittaci and Cryptococcus neoformans. Although feral pigeons pose sporadic health risks to humans, the risk is very low, even for humans involved in occupations that bring them into close contact with nesting sites. In sharp contrast, the immunocompromised patient may have a nearly 1000-fold greater risk of acquiring mycotic disease from feral pigeons and their excreta than does the general population.

Introduction

High numbers of feral pigeons live in almost every large city in the world and they are frequently encountered by humans.1 However, the health hazard that they pose has not been adequately assessed. Clinicians are confronted by the need to educate people about the risk of contracting disease most often when they are clearing feral pigeon excrements or culling them from buildings. However, many people have casual interactions with pigeons that range from feeding them in public parks to handling tamed birds that nest on windowsills. In addition, immunocompromised patients need advice about limiting exposure to potential vectors of zoonotic diseases, even when it concerns seemingly innocuous traditions such as feeding pigeons in the park. Extermination that is intended to greatly reduce pigeons around human populations does not appear to work as well as restricting feeding,1 are protested by those sensitive to the plight of animals, and most importantly, may pose increased hazards to human health from disturbance of the nesting environment and handling of carcasses. On the other hand, animal protection activists sometimes deny that pigeons pose any health hazard.2 In spite of the large distribution of feral pigeons and their successful acclimation to humans, there are no reviews of the scientific literature on this topic. This paper aims to give clinicians information that will help them assess the risk to human health from feral pigeons.

Section snippets

Methods

The review of older literature, which comprises sources not readily accessible to clinicians by standard scientific publication search engines, was accomplished by perusal of bibliographic references in Italian, French, German, Dutch and English publications (Table 1, Table 2). More recently cited sources were collected by searches with key words like ‘pigeon’, ‘dove’ and ‘Columba livia’ in the medical database PubMed. Only those papers that showed confirmed, or in the case of one large

Epidemiological investigations

Seventy-seven epidemiological studies of feral pigeon populations identified human pathogenic organisms coming from 60 cities and regions. Analysis revealed that feral pigeons harbored a total of 60 different human pathogenic organisms (Table 1). Five pathogens were viruses, nine were bacteria, 45 were fungi, and one was a protozoan (Table 1). However, only five pathogens were routinely transmitted to humans (Table 2). There were single case incidences for transmission of Salmonella enterica

Discussion

Epidemiological screening programs of animal reservoirs often identify pathogens that have never been, or are seldom, transmitted to humans. In regards to zoonotic disease transmitted from the feral pigeon to humans, all viruses, Yersinia, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Toxoplasma are in this category. Therefore, the results of many of the epidemiological investigation herein reviewed were only relevant for assessing the health of the feral pigeon populations rather than for assessing their

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