All seed food coming into New Zealand is Heat Treated or Irradiated.
And yet you will still find it alive in the center of Peanuts. I will go shopping and then take a picture for you.
Yes molds are everywhere, but they are not all the same.
In the mulch that comes out of my Wood Chipper, some molds are OK, some are definitely very dangerous if even inhaled. Open a bag of Potting Mix and take a good breath. The dust you breath in has mold spores in it, these can make you very sick.
So I would never eat any Peanuts, that are not cooked and salted.
For the birds this would be a NO!
Please remember our Fids are very susceptible to such dangers.
What I have trouble with is. Why would you risk your Fids health, when there are plenty of safe nuts?
Yes, of course you will find it in peanuts (heat does not kill aspergillus). And you will find it in your potting mix. And in your bread (all wheat has it). And on your kitchen counter. And on your hands. You will find it everywhere. But you are not correct in that parrots are susceptible to this danger. They are not if they are healthy.
Think about it. Most of the parrots we keep as companions come from tropical regions so they live their entire lives surrounded by fungus spores. They would be everywhere in the jungle... in the moldy leaves, in the rotting vegetation, on the wet trunks of trees, on the ripe fruit they eat, everywhere! But birds in the wild don't usually die of aspergillosis. Why? Because they have healthy immune systems.
Your own bird is exposed to asper spores all the time, same as mine, same as all other birds out there (and all other animals and all other people). They are in pellets, they are in seeds, they are in grains, they are in produce, they are even in cooked food, they are everywhere. There are hundreds of species of aspergilla and they flourish in nutrient-rich environments as well as nutrient-poor. You can't get away from them, they are even on and inside your walls, for heaven's sake! And that's why the immune system evolved to deal with this constant exposure - because if it hadn't, there would be no terrestrial life on earth.
And let me reassure you that I am not endangering my birds' health by feeding them one roasted peanut a day. I have had birds for over 40 years now and I currently have about 100 and I have never, ever had a single case of aspergillosis. Not a single one. Not that it cannot happen because it can -most likely, I've just been lucky! But if it did, it would not be because of the peanuts, it would be because the bird has a weak immune system for whatever reason. And this is not my personal opinion, this is what the scientific community says after years and years of studies (we've known about it since the 1700s) and I have no reason to doubt it is true.
Now, just to clarify: You can start with a bird with a healthy immune system and end up with a bird sick with aspergillosis. But that would only happen if the bird is fed only moldy grain for a long period of time. And, actually, most likely, the bird will not really die of aspergillosis but of aflatoxin poisoning.
I've just been reading this: Aspergillus Peanuts and Parrots
