By Margaret A. Wissman, DVM, DABVP, Avian Practice
I honestly don’t know what I would do if I was told tomorrow that I had to pack up all of my birds and find them new homes. Yet that is what happens to bird owners when they have been diagnosed with bird keeper’s lung disease, also known as hypersensitivity pneumonitis or allergic alveolitis. For this article, I will refer to it as hypersensitivity pneumonitis, or HP for short.
What is HP exactly? This is a disease that causes the tiny air sacs (which differ greatly from the avian air sacs), called alveoli, of human lungs to become inflamed as the result of inhaling certain dusts to which the victim has become sensitized or allergic.
**For the full article, pick up the June 2008 issue of BIRD TALK**
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