Quick Quarantine Question

Persephone's preliminary testing came back and she is NEGATIVE for PBFD, polyomavirus, chlamydia, and Pacheco's.

Is she cleared to be out of quarantine or do I still need to wait another two weeks?

My personal stance is to wait the full month just to be absolutely safe. Lab tests can have false negatives as well as positives.

Full disclosure: I haven't added a bird external to my flock in about 15 years, so my concerns are possibly out of date!

Good for you to do your disease testing ! Many people just don't see the importance because they don't realize that disease can be anywhere and it does happen!

To answer your question, that is entirely up to you. A lot of how much concern I'd have depends on the origin or the history of the bird. A rehomed bird, or one from a store where no one has much info on the bird, or you don't know the breeder or what 'kind' of breeder they came from, or whether they got the bird from a broker, etc. The more unknowns about the bird, the more cautious I'd be. If I got my bird from a very reputable and especially a "closed aviary" where they don't allow visitors and have very strict protocols regarding disease transmission, I wouldn't feel as bad about not finishing quarantine. I still think you should just do it. A month is not that long. There can be false positives and negatives in certain tests, but overall, if it comes out negative, I'd not obsess over it.

Thank you both. I was thinking the same thing due to false negatives, but part of me wanted to ask anyway!

I've spent a LOT of money getting my whole flock tested before my new baby boy comes in on Thursday as I've never had a baby bird before! Everyone is negative for the big stuff that could kill him. I am just being so cautious. I'm going to have a bird in every room if I keep it up! Persie seems to like being where she is for now and I think quarantine will help her acclimate to all the other pets slowly. Once it's been a month, I think she'll be more ready to move.

As for the baby bird, even though he will be weaned completely, I am going to continue hand feeding him.

How far away is far enough for quarantine? Of course I wash thoroughly between handling birds to prevent cross contamination. We have a pretty open house though so I want to be sure everyone is spread out enough with having two in quarantine separately from the existing fids AND from each other!

In a normal single family home with a forced air heating/cooling system, a non-connecting room will work in this type of quarantine. Its mainly limiting what the humans are carrying room to room.

If your home is a 'new' design open concept; target a separate room. If not possible, then longest line of sight.

We can't really practice true and complete quarantine in our homes. Central air/heating systems blow all the air everywhere, even if you're not using that, there is micro dust particles adhering to your clothes, hair, shoes... unless you have a hazmat suit, helmet, and a foot bath in/out of the area lol, we just do the "best" we can do.

Seriously, if you have a different room that is good. Since the tests have already come back negative, that should let you breathe a little easier as you finish out routine quarantine .