Young bird’s and losses the stress factor.
The big question at the moment is young bird losses! I say at the moment but really it’s an annual event nowadays getting more and more serious as the years go by. With reasons for this situation being banded about for example the sun and moon are in the sky together (to be honest from a humanitarian extinction point of view I’m glad they are!) It’s those 5 G phone signals or it’s solar flares affecting the earth’s magnetic fields which in turn affects our bird’s homing instinct. Well I’m not saying that these events don’t have some sort of impact on this situation but I can hand on heart say we won’t get any concrete conformation on it any time soon. Well not in my lifetime, so I think we can park these proposals for now wouldn’t you agree. So with those safely parked let’s try and look at the situation logically bringing it closer to home and work with some factors that we can work with to try and minimize and make an impact to reduce the losses. Which I hope the majority of fanciers would agree with by reducing the harm to our little feathered friends and in turn reducing the stress, anxiety, anger and frustrations of the fancier.
I will share with you my thoughts on the factors that that I have encountered in my lifetime with the bird’s that I have tried and tested to not totally stop the situation of losing young bird’s for that because of the numerous variables involved could never happen but to a level where racing pigeons becomes enjoyable both for me and my bird’s.
Stress and the bird’s immune system. To be honest controlling the stress is the primary issue with losses and yes I know the hawk situation is a factor as well as numerous other variables but as I said stress is the predominant (and I mean in the bird’s not the fanciers!) variable that we the fanciers can make a significant impact on losses of young bird’s situation. So let’s begin! Stress I’m sure you will have your own ideas on what stress is and how it makes you feel, well stress is a good thing in it’s basic form in the animal/bird world and is known as the fight or flight. Now bare with me I can here you thinking he’s off on one again! Yeah just a little but it’s a very important point I’m making which is critical to understand the meaning of this situation we find ourselves in. Where were we oh yes fight or flight is an inbuilt survival system that kicks in when you or in this case your bird when it is in immediate danger on a scale of harm to death. The body releases chemicals for simplicity we’ll just use the main well known one which is adrenaline that boosts in energy to either fight or get away from the danger. To receive this extra energy the body shuts down all non-essential for example digestion and the immune system because it can always resume this process after the danger has gone. In humans stress can be triggered by three factors physical, chemical or emotional but for our purpose’s we can bin the emotional factor because last time I looked bird’s don’t get emotional I will refrain from saying the obvious joke as some people in today’s society may not see the funny side and get all emotional! Right so physical and chemical it is for our bird’s here’s a few examples which we fanciers can control that are common practice in our husbandry which impacts on the stress of the bird’s under these two categories.
Physical
The darkness system
Over crowding
Bringing in new bird’s
Over training
Not providing adequate housing
Etc.
Chemical
Antibiotics
Antifungal
Let’s just say all medications cause stress to your bird’s (but used appropriately when necessary it can be managed)
For a more detailed explanation of stressors look at my old article on young bird sickness on Elimar here’s the link
https://www.elimarpigeons.com/articles/articles/scribes/jim-emerton/9408-young-bird-sickness-05-10-20
To balance this article up a bit as it does seem all doom and gloom! There is a positive side to stress after all it’s a big factor in making our bird’s win especially at sprint races but we are talking about very thin margins between winning and being lost. See the window of optimal performance on the chart below fig 1
From my experience and the research I’ve done over the years that it’s not just one practice we do especially with young bird’s its possibly one that tips it over the edge but mostly we are operating at a level with the bird’s performance that it is an opportunistic stressor that tips the bird over the edge. After looking at all the facts surrounding the issue of young bird losses and using the example above of multiple stressors and the small margins we are operating between winning and losses and taking into account young bird’s vulnerability especially to viruses and then secondary bacterial infections I’ve concluded that it’s probably a virus that is causing the disorientation of our bird’s hence they get lost. I’ll explain my rational behind my conclusion and which virus is my main suspect and why.
So here we go firstly I’m not a virlogist but I do have shall we say a reasonable understanding of viruses for a few years now and yes before covid! To be honest there is a few suspects but one seems to fit the bill when it comes to our bird’s and that is herpes 1 virus. Why because it is a very common virus in bird’s including our pigeons and most pigeons are carriers of and don’t ever show any outward signs that they have it. Also it only presents it’s self as well as what us fanciers call minor issues i.e. one eyed cold as we used to call it but more resently fat eye. I already here some saying that’s nowt to bother about they get over it in a few days! Yeah I have to admit yes it does but when you study it you will find it is stress related giving you a clear sign that your bird’s immune system is compromised and weak. The common symptoms which you can’t see are eye sight issues (blurred vision) and seen in humans although I suspect it’s the same for pigeons is disorientation and slurd speech although I think we can rule out the latter. Another point to note is that some bird’s show no symptoms at all whilst others can also get lesions on internal organs and in the throat which can be mistaken for canker in more extreme cases. What I’m trying to say is it’s very difficult to outwardly identify illness in the bird because it has different gestation periods depending on the bird’s immune system so different bird’s show different degrees that they actually have any ailment at all. So hypothetically you could send them to a race looking spot on but the stress of the race could activate the virus and result in large losses. Another correlation is the times of year when herpes virus is most active in racing pigeons if you look on the chart you will see that the virus hits one of it’s peaks at the same time as the young bird racing season is on. Fig 2
So there you go its just my own investigation into the issue and to summarise I think that if
we as fanciers try to reduce the practices we use that stress our bird’s then putting our bird’s in a race might not be that tips their stress levels over the edge which then translates into high losses. Because it’s not just one thing causing this situation it’s a combination of lots of practices that we the fanciers do that then reduce the bird’s immune system which then translates into high stress of the birds resulting into high losses from races due to illness. So if you were looking for getting the answer from a pill or a bottle think again this is about your actions regarding reducing the stress of the bird’s in your control, offering both you and your bird’s a more pleasurable experience like it should be!
Please note: I am not a medical professional or a veterinarian. I am though passionate about racing pigeons and have been all my life and endeavor to share my knowledge with like minded others. It is totally your choice should you wish to implement any of my findings.
Yours in sport
Dave Bunker Brierley 2021
