Quick facts
- Pigeons are quite resistant to infection of avian influenza virus (AIV).
- Pigeons can be potential hosts of AIV, as shown by research.
- There are very few documented, natural infections of AIV in pigeons. AIV may adapt to pigeons and cause disease.
- If a pigeon is infected with H5 sublineage viruses, clinical signs present mostly as neurologic and greenish diarrhea.
Always report any signs of disease to your state agency or veterinarian. Preventing disease is the best way to keep your flock healthy.
- Separate your flock from wild birds.
- Keep your loft clean.
- Separate new or returning birds from your flock for at least 14 days.
Avian influenza (AI) is a disease that can affect many bird species including pigeons. Waterfowl and shorebirds are natural hosts for the avian influenza virus. These birds will shed the virus, often without showing signs of illness.
Several research studies introduced pigeons to different avian influenza viruses (AIV). These studies showed that pigeons are very resistant to most infections.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is rapidly fatal for poultry (chickens, turkeys, quail and other landfowl). If a pigeon with HPAI is identified, it often has both neurologic (twisted necks) and digestive (greenish diarrhea) signs followed by death. Signs of HPAI in pigeons may be like Paramyxovirus.
Each state has an agency to respond to avian influenza cases. Minnesota’s agency is the Board of Animal Health.
If your flock has sudden, high death rates or many birds with neurologic and or digestive signs, contact your veterinarian or the Minnesota Board of Animal Health right away.
The Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory (MPTL: 320-231-5170) works with the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (VDL: 612-625-8787) to conduct and coordinate testing for AI.
Preventing disease
You can prevent disease in your loft by practicing biosecurity. To learn more, watch our pigeon loft biosecurity video.
Research
Researchers introduced pigeons to the avian influenza virus (AIV) for several studies. These studies show that pigeons are quite resistant to infection.
AIV from chickens and emus
Panigrahy et al. 1996 introduced pigeons to AIV from chickens and emus. They gave 8 to 32-month-old pigeons AIV through intravenous (IV) or nasal passage. Virus antibody titers were not present after 21 days. Choanal or cloacal swabs and internal organs were free of the virus.
Pigeons given the virus did not spread it to chickens in direct contact.
Researchers used both low and high-pathogenicity viruses in this study.
Highly pathogenic turkey isolates
Slemons and Easterday 1972 showed that the highly pathogenic turkey isolate of H5N9 AIV was present in 2 of 19 experimentally inoculated pigeons. Researchers could not determine if the virus was directly from the inoculum or if the pigeons became infected.
Pigeons inoculated oculonasally with H7N9 or H7N7 in a 2014 Kalthoff et al. study were infected with both viruses and shed low levels between days two and seven post-inoculation. Most shedding was from the respiratory tree although H7N7 was also present in feces. Researchers did not find viral antigens in internal organs.
H5N1 Hong Kong virus
Perkins et al. 2002 gave 4-week-old pigeons (some already infected with pigeon circovirus) H5N1 Hong Kong virus through the nasal passage. Researchers saw no clinical signs of virus from infected pigeons and did not observe any lesions. Viral antigens were absent in the organ tissues taken from these birds.
H5N1 Egypt virus
Only one study looked at a virus recovered from a naturally infected pigeon (H5N1, clade 2.2.1/C, Egypt). This virus caused neurological signs and greenish diarrhea when researchers experimentally infected birds. Infected birds shed very little virus during the experimental study.
H5N2 virus
Surveys of wildlife including 480 pigeons and doves after the 1983 PA AI outbreak did not result in isolations of AIV. The Ck/PA H5N2 virus did not replicate or elicit antibodies in experimentally infected pigeons. Another 309 pigeons surveyed during the outbreak had no antibodies to H5N2 virus.
Recent bird surveys of live bird markets in New York have not revealed any pigeons with antibodies to AIV. A few isolations were made from bird-dropping boards under pigeon cages in the Hong Kong markets. In genetic comparisons, these viruses are similar to those isolated from silkie chickens, quail and other chickens in the live bird markets from Hong Kong. No experimental inoculations of pigeons have been done with these isolates.
A sublineage of H5 viruses did cause an outbreak of HPAI in pigeons in Egypt. This virus was similar to viruses concurrently circulating in backyard poultry flocks and ducks and causing human infections. Two squabs (40 days old) from a backyard free-ranging flock of 50 of various ages, were submitted and diagnosed with HPAI. The flock had experienced sudden death (50 percent mortality), neurologic signs and greenish diarrhea.
Cauthen, A..N., D.E. Swayne, S. Schultz-Cherry, M.L. Perdue, D.L. Suarez. 2000. Continued circulation in China of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses encoding the hemagglutinin gene associated with the 1997 H5N1 outbreak in poultry and humans. J. Virol. 74:6592-6599.
Guan, Y., J.S.M. Peiris, A.S. Lipatov, T.M. Ellis, K.C. Dyrting, S. Krauss, L.J. Zhang, R.G. Webster, and K.F. Shortridge. 2002. Emergence of multiple genotypes of H5N1 avian influenza viruses in Hong Kong SAR. PNAS 99:8950- 8955.
Guan, Y., K.F. Shortridge, S. Krauss, P.S. Chin, K.C. Dyrting, T.M. Ellis, R.G. Webster, and M. Peiris. 2000. H9N2 influenza viruses possessing H5N1-like internal genomes continue to circulate in poultry in Southeastern China. J Virol. 74(20): 9372-9380.
Kalthoff D, Bogs J, Grund C, Tauscher K, Teifke JP, Starick E, Harder T, Beer M. 2014. Avian influenza H7N9/13 and H7N7/13: a comparative virulence study in chickens, pigeons, and ferrets. J Virol. 88(16):9153-65.
Nettles, V. F., J.M. Wood, and R.G. Webster. 1985. Wildlife surveillance associated with an outbreak of lethal H5N2 avian influenza in domestic poultry. Avian Dis. 29:733-741.
Panigrahy, B., D.A. Senne, J.C. Pedersen, A.L. Shafer, J.E. Pearson. 1996. Susceptibility of pigeons to avian influenza. Avian Dis. 40:60-604.
Peiris, J.S.M., Y. Guan, D. Markwell, P. Ghose, R.G. Webster, and K.F. Shortridge. 2001. Cocirculation of avian H9N2 and contemporary "human" H3N2 influenza A viruses in pigs in Southeastern China: potential for genetic reassortment? J. Virol. 75:9679-9686.
Shimaa M. G. Mansour, Reham M. ElBakrey, Haytham Ali, David E. B. Knudsen & Amal A. M. Eid 2014. Natural infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 in domestic pigeons (Columba livia) in Egypt, AvianPathol 43:4 319-324.
Slemons, R.D., and B.C. Easterday. 1972. Host response differences among five avian species to an influenza virus-A/Tk/Ontario/7732/6 (Hav5N?). Bull. W.H.O. 47:521-525.
Tudor, D.C. Avian influenza. 1991. In: Pigeon health and disease, 1st ed. Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa. Pp. 41-44.
Reviewed in 2024