08/09/2025
This is a really interesting article about both the Spix Macaw and Beak and Feather disease. Have a read!
SAVE THE SPIX’S MACAW from a second extinction
ACTP would like to add some facts to the Spix’s macaw release project situation that has been blown out of proportion by authorities in Brazil, to all our followers we would like to answer the propaganda put out on social media and give the actual facts of the situation.
Firstly; for those who don’t know, the Spix’s macaw went extinct in the wild in the year 2000, with a few specimens surviving the species in captivity. A massive project was launched to breed these birds and save the species, finally in 2020, ACTP sent birds to a purpose-built breeding and release center in the Spix’s habitat in Brazil, and in 2022 finally the first release happened and the Spix’s started its wild journey again. The project has been marred with political turmoil since the release. In spite of this the 2022 release has been hugely successful, beyond our wildest dreams with regular breeding events in the wild, even though we were never allowed to release birds again due to Brazilian politics. Worse still was the discovery this year of a wild Spix’s chick with a virus:
It is true that a Spix’s macaw chick leaving the wild nest showed feather coloration changes that were not normal, and had trouble flying, it had lost some flight feathers and under the circumstances was caught and due to a planned release of more Spix’s macaws we were preparing to do medical tests, so we performed disease testing on the wild chick as well as the 20 birds in the release enclosure.
To our surprise the wild chick came back positive for circo virus, all other birds in the release aviary were negative for circo-virus (causative agent of Beak and Feather disease PBFD). Due to the results it was decided to retest in case of a false positive as can occur with PBFD. We retested the chick as well as all the birds in the release aviary, the results came back positive for the wild chick and then 6 positives in the release aviary. The release aviary is immersed in habitat and the birds there are in regular contact with the wild Spix’s macaws.
The Brazilian authorities took the opportunity the virus test gave them to try push blame, we chose to wait for all the evidence and facts to respond. The authorities rightfully immediately cancelled the planned release of new birds into the wild until further notice. We immediately quarantined all the positive birds from the release aviary in our quarantine aviaries on site, and added a list of extra biosecurity measures. The authorities demanded all birds in all aviaries be tested, of course we complied and even volunteered to do double sampling to send to 2 independent laboratories.
The results showed that all birds in the breeding center, as well as social magnet enclosures (retired birds keeping the voice of the Spix’s in the area to help with site fidelity) and flocking enclosures were negative for the virus. But the release aviary had another 8 positive birds who were moved to the quarantine aviaries. However, one of the birds already in the quarantine aviary that was previously positive, had turned negative. While the wild chick had grown back normal flight feathers and flies well, but was still positive at one of the labs. The next tests on the wild chick came back negative.
It is known that Neo tropical parrots generally don’t react badly to the circo-virus compared to the old-world parrots in Australasia/Africa/Asia. This is also what all our tests have shown us. As previously positive birds are now becoming negative, showing the immune system of the birds is able to fight the virus. Not a single bird has died of the virus and other than the wild chick losing some feathers and now flying well again, the only other possible indicator seen is some aberrant white feathering scattered over the body of some individuals. The parents of the wild chick, who were the only contact the wild chick had while in the nest, show no symptoms whatsoever. Subsequently 9 of the 11 wild birds have had samples tested and all have come back negative for circo-virus, including all the wild birds with aberrant white feathering.
So, what we know, after sequencing the virus found in the wild chick, the sequence came back with its closest match to a sequence from a Hyacinth macaw in Brazil, effectively suggesting the virus comes from Brazil. With no sequence close to the strains found in Europe.
We also know that circo-virus has been in Brazil for more than 30 years, mostly in captive birds, however recent publications show the virus found in the wild too. Also, having spoken to vets in our closest city approximately 70km as the crow flies, vet clinics have received captive birds with the virus, but in that city, there are also flocks of feral Indian Ring-neck Parakeets known to be highly susceptible to the virus.
Now, if we put the facts together, considering that:
1. All birds at the Curaçá conservation center had been tested several times, always with negative results, prior to this year's incident.
2. All 41 birds arriving from Germany in January, tested negative to all the diseases, as well.
3. There was no way that the wild chick could have been infected by the new arrivals at the end of January. This is because Circovirus infection takes at least 20-25 days to become apparent, but it takes much longer for plumage changes to occur. So, given that the 41 macaws landed in Brazil after multiple negative disease tests at the end of January and the chick's plumage abnormalities were already noticeable at the beginning of February, there would not have been enough time. Furthermore, the birds were isolated in a quarantine approved by the Brazilian government, in an area controlled by armed agents. There was no way for either the birds or the staff to leave the area. Finally, the distance of almost 100 km between the quarantine and the sick chick would have effectively prevented the spread of the disease in such a short time.
4. Several avian circoviruses, including the one affecting parrots, have been reported in wild birds in Brazil.
5. The first 6, then 14 positive birds, which were negative before being moved into the release aviary, then had contact with wild Spix's macaws.
6. The virus isolated from the wild chick has been sequenced and does not belong to any strain of Circovirus isolated in Europe to date, but is the same virus isolated from a hyacinth macaw in Brazil.
7. 9 of the 11 wild birds have recently been tested and all the results came back negative, a huge win for the species if ICMBio will acknowledge the facts.
Our biggest concern is how ICMBio the government agency is reacting to the virus:
1. Telling us to test every 15 days and after 2 positive results, the birds must be euthanased! This is ridiculous as 15 days does not give the birds time to mount an immune response, of which we have seen the birds mounting successfully on their own. The general scientific consensus is to test every 3 months.
2. Ordering us to catch all the wild Spix’s macaws, effectively making them extinct in the wild again! Just as crazy, the virus is in the wild and likely transmitted to the Spix’s from a wild source, making the Spix’s extinct again will not change anything. The birds have been living free for 3 years now, the psychological implications for the birds to be put into small cages and exposed to battery testing would be detrimental to them and to the Spix’s macaw species. Especially when non-invasive regular testing in the wild can be and has already been done, and all samples found negative to date. It also doesn’t make sense removing only the Spix’s, what about all the other parrot species that share the habitat, especially the Illiger macaws (maracana) that spend social and competitive time with the Spix’s macaws on a daily basis. Removing the Spix’s does not solve any possible issue, and certainly does not remove the virus from the wild.
Removing the Spix’s macaw from the wild as an extinction event also seriously jeopardizes any future effort to reestablish the species in the wild again. All the unprecedented conservation gains for the species over the past 10 years would be lost, for no justifiable or scientifically supported reason. The goals related to doing this can only be politically motivated. Not to mention the destruction of locals trust and support in the project. Something that takes decades to build and days to destroy, especially in sociological settings like the Caatinga, future cooperation with the local community will only get harder and harder to gain after incidents like this.
Understandably, Brazilian government agency officials have acted and proposed an action plan that ACTP considers unworkable, as well as nonsensical, and which, if implemented, would spell the end of the Spix's macaw species.
However, the latest news is very encouraging: all samples taken from wild Spix's macaws have tested negative.
This cements the fact that catching all the wild Spix’s would be pointless, unethical, and irresponsible of anyone pushing that agenda and the blame of the “second extinction of the species in the wild” would be solely on the shoulders of those individuals and would haunt the Brazilian Environmental agencies and their affiliates for decades to come. Killing the parrots that we have so carefully reintroduced would undoubtedly mean the definitive end of the reintroduction program and, most likely, the end of a species, namely the definitive disappearance of the Spix's macaw.
We thank you all for reading this and getting a better understanding of the current situation. We at ACTP have and are continuing to fight as hard as we can for the Spix’s macaw, against all the odds. The Spix’s macaws deserve a chance to just live free and not suffer from the results of egos and political agendas…
