Inclusion body disease of falcons (IBDF) is caused by a herpesvirus. The clinical course is short, 24 to 72 hours in duration, and is characterized by mild to severe depression and weakness often accompanied by anorexia. The disease is invariably fatal. The virus has a marked affinity for the reticuloendothelial system and hepatocytes,producing focal to diffuse necrosis of infected tissues accompanied by the formation of intranuclear inclusion bodies. The virus is pathogenic for American kestrels (Falco sparverius) and great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) in which typical lesions of IBDF are reproduced. The lesions of IBDF are similar to those produced by some herpesvirus infections in other avian species.
Samples of secondary remiges collected from nestling Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) in Alaska and western Greenland were analyzed for trace-element content using instrumental neutron-activation analysis. Concentrations of 14 trace elements were subjected to a series of multivariate discriminant function analyses to ascertain whether or not these concentrations could be used to identify the geographic origins of the birds sampled. Individual falcons from the three areas studied can be placed in their proper natal locale with 100% predictability. Mercury (Hg) was the best individual discriminator for separating sample groupings. Aluminum (A1) and Vanadium (V), in conjunction with Hg, provided the most discriminant trio of elements when various groupings of element concentrations were considered as predictors.
Nematodes of the genus Serrato.spiculumn are common and usually innocuous inhabitants of the air sacs of several species of falcons. However, the abdominal and thoracic air sacs of a prairie falcon (Falco mmzexicanus) that died in respiratory distress were filled with hundreds of adult parasites. Illnesses in a peregrine (Falco peregrinus tumzdrius) and another prairie falcon, tentatively diagnosed as serratospiculiasis, were successfully treated with thiabendazole given orally. Embryonated ova were found in the feces of 8 of 73 falcons representing five species.
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