SYDNEY, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Though it is dreadful that groups of the native Australian bird, rainbow lorikeets, are paralysed and dropping from the sky, they are not victims of another mysterious virus, bird expert Darryl Jones from Griffith University said.
Several news outlets reported a virus spread similar to the COVID-19 through close contact has paralyzed and killed hundreds of rainbow lorikeets recently across southeast Queensland.
Jones confirmed there is a big outbreak going on at the moment, saying "there are literally hundreds of dead lorikeets or paralysed lorikeets all over Brisbane."
"But it's not a disease and it's not spread by viruses ... that was an attempt by the journalist to make it into an interesting story," he told Xinhua on Wednesday.
According to Jones, the condition is known as lorikeet paralysis syndrome. Birds with this syndrome will turn up with paralysis of various kinds.
"The most typical ones are their feet are clenched and they can't move their wings," he explained.
"And the worst ones are just they're still alive but they can't move at all ... Their eyes are moving and their tongues are moving but they can't do anything."
While the source of the syndrome is still unknown, Jones and his research team are racing up to solve the puzzle.
"I'm involved in a big project now to try and understand that, and it appears that the researchers think that it might be a toxin, some sort of poisonous thing."
"But it's possible that it's actually a naturally occurring toxin that is probably in some of the plants that they're eating."
Very shortly the research team will ask people to lend a hand and report if they see new lorikeets that just have fallen out of trees or look paralysed, so they can conduct more field surveys.
"At the moment it's a detective job, which is trying to trace down the clues, see where it's coming from and then do something about it once we find out," Jones said.
He said people can also help by transferring the birds to the vets, for as long as the birds are still alive, they can be treated.
"I mean for really severely paralysed ones, you can't do anything, but there's a big range, some of them are a little bit affected," Jones said.
"There are treatments, so what you need to do is go to a vet and Brisbane has a number of specialist bird vets."
And at the same time, people can still enjoy the happiness of feeding these beautiful creatures.
"Just keep the feeding clean and the feeding place clean," he said.
"But this (syndrome) has nothing to do with feeding which is a big relief." Enditem
