# Passing of cold/flu virus to parakeet. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-of-cold-flu-virus-to-parakeet/385851 "2006-12-28T13:41:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2006, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-of-cold-flu-virus-to-parakeet/385851/1 "2006-12-28T13:41:09Z")
Can a cold or the flu be passed to a pet parakeet (or any pet for that matter,) and vice versa? There’s quite a bit of close contact, as he’s very friendly and I just wondered if an exchange of germs is actually possible between different species. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-of-cold-flu-virus-to-parakeet/385851/2 "2006-12-28T15:33:39Z")
Have you ever heard of Bird Flu? Yes, it is possible, and it happens, at least in the bird to human direction. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-of-cold-flu-virus-to-parakeet/385851/3 "2006-12-28T16:47:09Z")
[QUOTE=Telemark] Have you ever heard of Bird Flu? Yes, it is possible, and it happens, at least in the bird to human direction. [/QUOTE] It was my understanding though, that what made the Bird Flu such a big deal was the fact that the virus evolved the _rare_ ability to jump across species. Even with avian flu viruses that adapt from one species and spread to another species it’s usually from one bird species to another bird species. When you have an infectious disease that can jump species, it’s called **zoonosis** , although the word usually refers to the stuff that jumps from animals to humans (because those are the ones we worry about most). Major zoonoses that you’ve probably heard about are anthrax, bubonic plague, ebola, rabies, and potentially SARS (which may have jumped to humans from civet cats). There is a growing field of medicine dedicated to zoonotic disease, especially with scary stuff like West Nile on the rise. Generally though, the risk for interspecies disease is pretty low and the consequences are _usually_ mild. So mild that most people and animals don’t get sick enough to even know they were sick, so zoonotic diseases can be tough to study. Zoonosis DOES exist. You probably won’t give your bird the sniffles, but it’s stiill prudent not to lick him or something. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/passing-of-cold-flu-virus-to-parakeet/385851/4 "2006-12-28T16:55:50Z")
Strange, I just got a mental image of Homer sneezing and killing off all the dinosaurs from that Simpsons Hallowe’en episode…