Thank you, you're correct of course. Pardon the slip.

Jack Kintner kintner at nas.com Blaine


At 08:48 AM 3/13/01 -0800, you wrote:

>Jack Kintner wrote,
>
> > It's supposedly due to a salmonella virus that's retained in excrement and
> > passed around as they flock closely and walk around in it.
>
>Folks, please note that Salmonella are bacteria, not viruses. Salmonella
>are part of the large family of enteric bacteria, including Escherichia
>coli, that are common members of the intestinal flora of animals, so they
>are abundant in bird feces. Yes, it is important to clean off the
>feces. Since the infectious agents are bacteria, they can continue to
>grow slowly in the excrement, outside the bird's body; it's hard to
>generalize about viruses, because they come in a variety of forms, but
>many viruses would be inactivated rather quickly in dried excrement.
>
>Burt Guttman
>The Evergreen State College 360-867-6755
>Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
>
>Reunite Gondwana