Falconry: Brilliant way to treat aspergillosis
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Aspergillosis is a deadly fungal respiratory infection that can rapidly kill birds of prey.
This video outlines an amazing new treatment discovered and pioneered by Master Falconer and biologist Steve Layman. This treatment has personally saved the life of two of my birds over the years.
#falcon #falconry #hawk #hawking #kestrel #goshawk #peregrinefalcon #falconer #falconrylife #harrishawk #accipiter
Fascinating stuff. Nature is amazing.
Sounds brilliantly simple👍 i luckily never met with aspergilosis in person. But surely i will remember this❤️😉
My personal experience with aspergellosis exactly mirrored the experience of many passage goshawks in my area. They are taken from the dry side of the state brought over to the wet side of the state. The freshly caught birds are preforming wonderfully for about 8-10 weeks. One day your catching wild game the next they fail to eat and are dead within 24 hrs. Early capture stress appears to be gone but the fungal growth that started seems to reach critical mass in a very a predictable time frame.
Goshawks raised from nestlings seem to be all but immune even housed and flown in the exact same environment. Managing stress and keeping immune functions high seems to be the key. If fresh cut boughs help that would be amazing, especially early when stress in at its highest point.
I really enjoyed this video. You’re passion and knowledge is great to see. All the best to you, bro
This is such great information! I have been throwing Juniper and pine trimmings in my mews for the last few years. It also helps with clean up and smells..
Merry Xmas Ben love your videos from across the pond,!,,,,,
Same to you!! Hope you had a great season!
Absolutely awesome
Great information! Thank you!
Awesome info!
I would like to see some research done using F10sc in a fogger instead of organic matter. People in the reptile community use it to treat respiratory infections in snakes and lizards both. F10 kills fungal spores and disinfects the air and surfaces and they say it's safe to use in a misting/fogging system to treat the air. They sell an aerosol or you can just buy the normal F10sc concentrate and dilute it yourself. I've been using it for years to clean everything for my reptiles and chickens. I've also been adding it to the misting system used in my big tree monitor enclosure for a couple years to help keep bacteria and mold under control.
Great video Ben! I wish I had watch this last year as I lost my female goshawk to that horrible disease😔
I feel for you. It rips your heart out to loose a bird like that.
@@benwoodrufffalconry it's certainly does Ben its souls distroying! I'm getting my first peregrine tercel next year so your videos are being a great help to me as I've no mentor only books to read and learn from and obviously your videos which I relate to much better. I'm hoping to train him to wait on and fly at English partridge over my pointer. Keep up the good work Ben it's more valuable than you will ever realise to people like me. 😊
Hi Ben and Belated Merry Christmas. Thanks for this Video. A Qeustion
Sorry for the little mistake. Has any try A UV Air sterilization Unit that recycle the Air many times Over with the Help of the Pine Needles?
@@gregoryh4601 I don’t think anyone has tried that approach yet. It is a great idea.
@@benwoodrufffalconry when I work at a Bird Rehab I ask them and they laugh at me. But I learn that they Were Democratic and they had a Redtail Hawk was attack them when they brought food in so I gave the Idea you said cover the Food. It work big but when they found out I was a Republican they let me go. For handling a very small Owl 🦉 that was my learning to be a Falconery. Oh Well. Ben thanks for all you teaching us. Bye Greg of Ohio
I've read people have had success using Oxine AH to manage. It's used for breathing treatments and cleaning/disinfecting the environment.
Does anyone know if you can freeze needles for later use? I have wanted to use needles on occasion but I don't have any trees conveniently close.
Hello! I just came across this video and would love to read more about this, but I can't find more information online about any of these studies, and also cannot find any contact information for Steve Layman. Have you been able to find more information or could you help point me to a resource?
Does it have to be cut pine needles to have any benefit ? Is there any benefit in growing conifers around the mews or aviaries?
It wouldn’t hurt to grow conifers nearby. There is definitely off-gassing that occurs from living trees. Would be wise for general prevention. But if the bird was actually sick, you need the higher concentration of terpenes from cut needles.
it depends on the dose that you are looking for. living conifers release terpenes, but in very small amounts. whole needles pulled off of trees release terpenes as well, but again at a slow rate. The best way to release them quickly is to put the needles through a coffee grinder and chop them into tiny pieces the size of coffee grounds.
My question is how often do you have to change the pine needles?
You recommend this as a preventative measure. Are there other remedies you recommend to do preventatively? For example, is it wise to go ahead and de-worm a bird when you trap it? Or could that cause more harm than good?
Ah... So using the trees as an immune system resulted in the birds losing the ability to fight it themselves...
We have a product called “natural gum turpentine” available commonly at hardware. I believe it is derived from Australian eucalyptus trees. Do you know if that can be used generally as an aspergillosis/ anti fungal?
Fallen Eucalyptus leaves are rather notorious for growing fungal spores
wood conifer tree lwork same
Does it matter what kind of pine and/ or spruce needles are used? I have heard white pine is the best, even for human consumption with lung issues and drinking as a tea.
all confiner needles have these antifungal terpenes, although the quantity will vary by species. One thing that Steve Layman had noted as he was asking around the falconry community is that accipiters will innately choose the species of plant in their location that has the strongest concentration of antifungal terpenes. In some areas deciduous leaves are used because they have the highest concentration of antifungal terpenes.
So my wife diffuses natural oils in our house for various things, I wonder if there is a way to diffuse pine oil in a mews or giant hood? 🤔
That is a great idea worthy of some serious research
Maybe just a few drops on a terracotta pot? It would act as a large passive diffuser. Pure Pine based essential oils are available from Doterra (health food stores usually have other ingredients).
Hey Ben. Miss hanging out. Your ceremonies were the best, and will always cherish those memories. Hugs. Amanda
Very interesting.
The greenery ar Goshawk flowers for the mate.
reduced immunity is the worst 'source' of the problem... anything that reduces immunity, like Cortisones....we lost a cat to aspegillosis, and it's not well-understood in the veterinary community. There is a super website dedicated to Aspergillosis.
all land animals can succumb to aspergillosis, but birds are particularly susceptible. Imuno-compromised mammals are at risk. Mammals also sometimes succumb to aspergillosis if they are subjected to especially high doses of the spores.
Thanks Ben.
I recently purchased a four-ounce bottle of natural pine oil as a preventative measure for my passage sharpie. It's quite potent and I place a couple of drops directly below her on her perch every day.
Avian vets don't always agree on whether meds such as itraconazol should given as a preventative measure, especially for little hawks like a sharpie so I decided to hold off on them for now.
Aspergillosis is caused by just a few species of fungus. Most fungus is completely harmless to birds. These fungi that cause asper are the black molds that are commonly called "mildew" when they grow inside a house. They are globally present - live spores can be cultivated from airsamples taken anywhere on earth.
Very cool, thanks for sharing!
Something else I’ve tried is cutting and putting the needles in a Tupperware full of hot water with holes cut in the lid and placing in the front of the box. Breaks down and releases the terpenes into the steam for the bird to inhale in the box before the needles are replaced. Seemed to make a difference for us. I use this method in addition to a med like itraconazole/voriconazole. Asperzole is also available from some falconry suppliers for those needing it more quickly as well (or prophylactically). Another falconer and scientist I know has been studying this method professionally for the past few years, so there may be more literature available about it in the future.
These are all AWESOME tips!! There are a lot of very effective anti-fungal medications available now, and the needle treatment is a great way to supplement them. I have designed my giant hoods so that they have an area for me to put needles and a fan pulls air over the needles and into the giant hood as a prophylactic.
I was thinking this very thing as I watched the video.
Adding needles to hot water does 2 things, releases the terpines in the needles, and carries them in the steam throughout the box.
I'm sure this method will speed up the release and distribution of the terpines so would need replaced more often, ie, after the water cools, but for a quick blast I'm pretty sure this method would work well.
I am a close friend of Steve Layman's and had been in regular communication as he developed this protocol. His method is to pull the needles off the branch, as the turpenes are concentrated in the needles. They may be present in the wood as well, but he figured "go to the source". He then recommends maximizing the damage to those needles as much as possible to facilitate the release of the turpenes by tearing, cutting, or in his ideal scenario grinding them. He uses an old coffee grinder for this (he is in the Seattle area where everyone owns at least a few coffee grinders) and grinds the needles to a fine powder. He had noticed that very hot water helps facilitate the release of the turpenes put he came to the conclusion that water/steam was more hassle than benefit especially if you grind the needles to powder. In some of his early experiments, he distilled the turpenes out and used the essential oils retrieved from the needles, but did not ultimately find any benefit from that especially as compared to ground needles. However you treat the needles, the dissipation of the turpenes will fade over time, so periodically add new turpenes as the "fresh forest smell" starts to fade. Eventually, you will run out of room for new needles and need to throw them out and start over.
Another important thing to note is that there are other plants besides conifers which have antifungal turpenes within their foliage, but it seems that all confiner needles are effective to one degree or another.
Last I spoke to him about this (Nov 2021) which of the turpenes present in the needles is the antifungal agent in the needles had not been identified.
An additional benefit to using needles is that some of the turpenes clearly have a calming effect on the birds being exposed to them. Some zoos and raptor education programs that have tried the needle therapy keep needles in the transport boxes because it makes such a difference in how stressed out the birds are when being transported. When used just for the calming effect, most people do not break up the needles at all.