DETECTION OF CHLAMYDIOSIS IN A SHIPMENT OF PET BIRDS, LEADING TO RECOGNITION OF AN OUTBREAK OF CLINICALLY MILD PSITTACOSIS IN HUMANS

Avian chlamydiosis was detected in a shipment of >700 pet birds from a Florida bird distributor that were sold to nine Atlanta-area pet stor es in August 1995. Respiratory illness among persons who had recently acquired birds from this shipment was reported to local public health officials. The attack rate of acute respiratory illness was 10.7% amon g persons in households exposed to birds from the implicated flock vs. 1.8% among control households (odds ratio, 6.60; 95% confidence inter val, 1.39-31.2), Illness and serological evidence of infection in the absence of symptoms were more common among persons in households with recently purchased birds that were sick or that had died and among per sons who had had direct contact with the birds. Clinical psittacosis o r serological evidence of Chlamydia psittaci infection was found in 30 .7% of households with birds from the infected flock. Mild illnesses a nd asymptomatic infections in exposed persons were unusual features of this outbreak.