Well stone the crows: PBFD in a raven?

There has been an increase in the number of tentative circoviruses identified in avian species with duck circovirus (DuCV) recently identified and a number of avian circovirus-like infections based on histopathology, and electronmicroscopy in doves, finches, gulls and ostrich. Avian circovirus infections cause different clinical manifestations ranging from severe chronic feather, beak and claw abnormalities to non-specific ill-thrift, lethargy and poor performance but a common feature shared is lymphoid depletion and associated immunosuppression that exposes the infected birds to secondary opportunistic infections. In this paper, we report the use of PCR amplification using degenerate primers to identify a novel circovirus in Australian ravens (Corvus coronoides) exhibiting clinical signs similar to those that occur in psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD).