In recent January 1930 , President Herbert Hoover place an embargo on parrot , banning all of the colorful birds from America ’s ports of entry . The reason ? Disease bar .
For weeks , cases of a deadly disease call “ parrot fever ” had made headlines across the United States . One of the first reported victims was a woman named Lillian Martin , who had receive a pet parrot from her husband over the holidays . Shortly after , the bird fell inauspicious and choke — and Mrs. Martin ( as well as two members of her family , who had helped care for the ailing bird ) began shew symptoms of a mysterious illness that resembled typhoid .
As a MD examined the family , he recall reading about parrot fever in a newspaper and immediately suspect Martin might have the rare disease . Hesenta telegram to the U.S. Public Heath Service ask if they had a serum to address it . They did not .
This was a serious problem . Parrot feverishness is a very real disease — and an unpleasant one at that . cause by the bacteriaChlamydia psittaci , parrot fever ( orpsittacosis ) can be contracted after coming into close middleman with infected parrots , pigeons , ducks , mark , Gallus gallus , Meleagris gallopavo , and tons of other bird species . The symptoms resemble pneumonia or enteric fever fever , with victims abide from passing downcast white-hot lineage cell numeration , gamy pyrexia , pound headaches , and respiratory problems . Today the disease can be treated with antibiotic , but in 1930 , 20 percent of victims were expected to die .
The story of parrot pyrexia , however , would raise to spread much faster than the disease itself . Only a few sidereal day into January , four the great unwashed became gravely ominous at the same Baltimore pet shop from which Martin ’s bird had been purchase , and parrot fever was straightaway suspected as the crusade . The U.S. Public Health Service tasked a pathologist name Charles Armstrong with find a cure .
According to anNPR interviewwithThe New Yorkerwriter Jill Lepore , “ Armstrong decide[d ] that the way to gain entropy about this outbreak is to cable all the public health departments in every American Department of State and in cities where they are now cropping up suspected pillowcase . What he needs to do to work the mystery is to distribute the word . ”
Armstrong ’s movement to finish the disease , however , had aftermath : It inseminate panic . On January 8,The Washington Postwrote : " ' Parrot ' Disease Baffles Experts . "
paper move nuts . As LeporeexplainedinThe New Yorker , parrot feverishness had all the makings of a viral fib : It was unheard of , foreign , exotic , and invisible — and , if literal , it threatened to harm the whole country . The AP forebodingly called it a “ new and mysterious enemy . ” doctor across the state , who were told to be on the lookout for sign of the disease , seemed to start blaming every unusual coughing on possible psittacosis . By mid - January , more than 50 cases of parrot fever — include eight death — had been reported .
By January 18 , California had enacted a 60 - dayembargo , ban parrots from the port of San Pedro . ( Any boo that managed to intersect the moulding in meter was placed under quarantine . ) One hebdomad later , President Herbert Hoover followed wooing , emerge an executive order state that “ No parrot may be premise into the United States or any of its possessions or colony from any foreign port . ”
Many paper took the embargo as validation . “ If you have a pet pet parrot , do not sink your nose or mouth in its pretty feather , or stroke the parrot and after put your deal to your mouth,”warnedArthur Brisbane in his nationally syndicated editorial pillar . But many expert also argued that the embargo was reactionary and that fears were wide overblown . ( Some went so far to wrongly claim that parrot fever did n’t exist at all . )
The Surgeon General , Hugh S. Cummings , set down squarely in the middle of the debate . In a full - page pillar , he adjudicate to settle down the populace ’s fearfulness : “ The present outbreak of the disease among human beings is not at all likely to adopt the proportionality of a far-flung epidemic , ” hewrote . unluckily , he did n’t deliver the goods in calming anyone down . ( In the same article , Cummings supervise to call parrots “ a dealer of end , ” which did n’t really facilitate his case . )
Naturally , some people turn down to take any risks . Leporewrote :
By November of 1930 , the routine of parrot febrility cases had dwindled and the ban was last lifted . To this day , there ’s still controversy over how many reported cases of parrot fever were echt and how many were merely the result of mass suggestion .
“ There has always been a doubt in the mind of the world as to whether or not the parrot was guilty ; but a parrot was an acceptable ‘ Capricorn , ’ and he bore the brunt of the accusation,“The Montana Standardreportedthe day after the ban was lift . “ We may import all the parrots we please , and Polly can now screech her desire for a cracker , with no fear of any functionary demanding her naturalization papers . ”
