Schubot Center Announces PDD Breakthrough

Dr. Ian Tizard of Texas A&M's Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center announced on 19 May 2008 that they have made a breakthrough in development of a diagnostic test for Proventricular Dilatation Disease, PDD. Dr Tizard reports they have developed a serologic test that seems to be absolutely specific for PDD (no false positives), although it is not yet fully sensitive (three false negatives out of about 20 biopsy-confirmed positives). Further work remains to identify exactly what the causative organism is and to improve the test's sensitivity, but these results are still a tremendous breakthrough in the battle against this horrendous disease. The American Federation of Aviculture is proud to be one of the supporters of this PDD research at Texas A&M through its Avian Research Grants Program and invite all bird lovers to help the Schubot Center continue this work by donating to AFA's 2008 Avian Research Grants Program. Tax deductible donations may be made online at 2008 Avian Research Grants Program

Donations may also be made by check to "AFA Avian Research Grants Program" and mailed to American Federation of Aviculture, Inc.
P.O. Box 91717
Austin TX 78709-1717

This is great news!

Yes very good news.

I'm afraid to breath - can it be?

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Certainly a big step in the right direction if they can do accurate diagnosis. That very well may lead to further breakthroughs!

This is wonderful news.