Effects of feeder surface cleaning on <i>Mycoplasma gallisepticum</i> transmission in House Finches

People around the world love to feed birds and can benefit from doing so. However, feeders can also contribute to disease spread between songbirds. There are several proposed methods to limit this spread. Cleaning bird feeders is one commonly recommended practice. It is important to test whether recommended cleaning methods actually work to prevent spread, and to test simple cleaning methods that people could do frequently at their own feeders. This thesis explores whether cleaning feeders often with a common household bleach wipe can reduce disease spread. I used a pathogen of songbirds, mostly house finches, that is common at bird feeders across North America: the bacteria Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG). MG causes severe "pink eye"-like symptoms and sluggish behavior in house finches. In extreme cases, MG causes temporary blindness and death for birds that cannot find food or avoid predators. I used two experiments to look at the immediate and long-term effects of cleaning on the spread of this pathogen. In the first study, the sick and healthy birds shared a cage, and I applied the cleaning protocols to the shared feeder every other day to monitor the long-term effects on spread. In the second study, I separated the sick birds from the healthy individuals and moved only the contaminated feeder from one cage to another, with or without a thorough cleaning. I hypothesized that my cleaning protocol would slow the rate of spread when the birds shared a cage and prevent infection when the birds were separated and only used the same feeder surfaces. I found that the bleach wipe cleaning was able to prevent the healthy birds from getting sick when only the bird feeder itself, that a sick bird had used, was wiped down and moved into the cage. In contrast, the cleaning wipe did not slow the rate of spread when the sick and healthy birds shared a small cage and continuously fed together at one feeder. When analyzed together, my thesis shows that cleaning can be helpful in reducing pathogen load, but transmission is influenced by a variety of factors which complicate any one prevention method. Further work should explore the effects of feeder cleaning in the wild, where birds have access to a variety of feeding sites, potentially allowing birds to spread out sufficiently that frequent cleaning of surfaces can reduce disease spread.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Biological Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Meyers, Riley Anne

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Hawley, Dana M.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hoyt, Joseph R.
• Dayer, Ashley A.

• Disease Ecology
• Bird feeder
• Birds

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:43953

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/135553