Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Facultat de Veterinària

Yerpes Ron, Marta

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Author: Marta Yerpes Ron|  Veterinarian Medicine Degree  |  Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona | 28/06/16Update of feather picking in psittacine birdsThe members of the class Aves belonging to the order of the Psittaciformes are characterizedby having a large brain, curiosity, learning ability during his long life, great adaptability tochanging environmental conditions and a very complex social behaviour .Two of the most severely restricted behavioral conducts in captivity are foraging andlocomotion, which are extremely important. Restricting them is the reason why psittacinebirds in captivity are more likely to develop a wide range of behavioral problems, such asfeather picking .One of the aims of this study is to evaluate and compare the contents of different literaturesources found, and develop an objective and constructive criticism of the quality of existinginformation about feather picking.On the other hand, the second aim is the analysis of 4 themes that the author believes areimportant to develop an opinion in reference to information published. The themes are:environmental enrichment, management and training; feather picking patterns and moresusceptible species; feather scoring system and most commonly psychoactive drugs andother treatments used in avian patients.Introduction & objectivesMaterial & MethodsDiscussionThis study is based on information collected through several portals such as pubmed andsciencie direct, and popular science books related to the subject. The comparative analysishas been limited to a specific period of time ranging from 2000 to 2015.The criteria used for obtaining the information are on the one hand, the inclusion of reviewarticles, clinical cases, pharmacological studies and book chapters and on the other hand,the bibliographic exclusion of any topic related to organic/medical causes.It will be elaborated a table with this information in which the topics will be collected by itsimportance and special relationship with feather picking.Environmental enrichment, management and trainingFeather picking patterns and more susceptible speciesImage 1. Different examples of environmental enrichment. There are manydifferent sources to make caged parrots develop several activities.Image  2. From left to right, different cases of feather plucking from low to high severity level .  ResultsConclusionsTable 2. Psychoactive drugs and other treatments used in avian patients withfeather picking. The drugs colored in red have not been studied but they arerecommended.Table 1. Analytical results of the topics covered in the various literature sources.It will be designed a results table where every source will be analyzed and classified,mentioning if the listed topics appears or not. In affirmative case, it will be consideredwhether the information is general or specific and referred to a particular specie or speciesin general. In the table, each source may be added as many times as mentioned.In this study we included a total of 26 bibliographical sources, of which 3 are book chaptersand 23 are articles.Class Drug Benzodiazepines Diazepam Butyrophenones Chlorpromazine and haloperidol Hormones and GnRHanalogues hCG , leuprolide (injectable) and deslorelin(patches) Tricyclic antidepressants Clomipramine, doxepin and amitriptylineSelective serotonin reuptake inhibitors Fluoxetine and paroxetineOpioid antagonists NaltrexoneOpioid agonists ButorphanolGeneral information Concrete information Species in general Only one species Feather picking 16 10 12 9 Enrichment 12 7 15 Feather picking patterns 3 3 3 Feather scoring system 2 2 Biology/physiology in the order Psittaciformes 4 6 9 Psychoactive drugs 6 5 6 5 Studies, protocols and pharmacological treatments 2 5 3 3 Comparison with other species disorders 8 4 8 Comparison with human disorders 4 7 8 Management 7 3 9 Measurement of different parameters (behavior, stress, biochemical, ...) 2 12 20 14 Training 2 1 3 Total 63 65 98 34 Feather scoring system There are two feather scoring systems created under the need to assess objectively thedegree of feather picking suffered by different individuals. The first created forMeehan et al. (2003) and the second created for van Zeeland et al. 2012. The twosystems can be used interchangeably, but the second can detect real changes in earlierstages.Most commonly psychoactive drugs and other treatments used in avian patientsImage 3. From left to right, the three more susceptible species, African grey parrot(Psittacus erithacus), cockatoos (Cacatua alba) and macaws (Ara ararauna).There is much information about the feather picking,  however the quality of this is lower than expected.The belief of thinking that is an exploited topic of which new information can not be extracted is wrong. There are many fronts in which you can research.The most of the bibliography sources often talk generally about the order Psittaciformes, without differentiating between species.The drug treatment information is scarce. There are few data regarding effective doses, predictable therapeutic effects, pharmacokinetics and toxicity.There is no specific information for each species in relation to their biology and behavior.In most of the studies species-specific made it has been used those species who are kept in larger numbers in captivity, to the detriment of those that are only found in private collections and zoos, such as several species of the genus Platycercus and Brotogeris .Referring to environmental enrichment as key point of treatment or prevention of disorders such as feather picking, more experimental studies are needed to clarify an issue that has been based more on empirical than scientific findings.

Update of feather picking in psittacine birds

https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tfg/2016/174393/TFG_myerpesron_poster.pdf

Update of feather picking in psittacine birds

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