US EditionBrazil Police Probe Plight of Near-Extinct Blue Parrot
Brazilian police investigate biosafety failures after all 11 reintroduced Spix's macaws and 20 captive birds tested positive for a deadly circovirus, with fines totaling 1.8 million reais.
- Tuesday, Brazilian police launched 'Operation Blue Hope' to probe a circovirus outbreak among Spix's macaws, seizing devices and warning of potential charges.
- Reintroduction efforts dating to 2000 collided with last week's findings that all 11 released Spix's macaws tested positive, according to ICMBio.
- Regulators fined the Spix's Macaw Breeding Center 1.8 million reais , and the center said it was "completely calm" with only five of 103 macaws testing positive, while ICMBio said test interpretation is "not simple".
- The center had resisted a court order in October to recapture released birds, and Brazil ended a partnership with the German group in 2024 after it sold 26 birds to a private zoo in India without consent.
- Claudia Sacramento said `We are talking about a Brazilian bird of high conservation value`, noting the breeding center partners with the German Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, which holds 75 percent of registered Spix's macaws, while ICMBio warned scientific uncertainty about positive test prognosis.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Brazilian police said Wednesday that it investigates the spread of a potentially lethal virus that affects the blue macaws of Spix, one of the rarest birds in the world, famous for the animated film “Rio.” The conservation of Spix (Cyanopsitta spixii) is the subject of a strong dispute between private breeders and Brazilian authorities.This species had been declared extinct in the wild 25 years ago. By 2020, about twe…
Watauga Democrat
Brazil police probe plight of near-extinct blue parrot
Brazilian police said Wednesday they were probing the outbreak of a lethal virus among some of the last Spix's macaws, one of the world's rarest birds -- made famous as the blue parrot in the 2011 animated film "Rio."
The 11 Spix macaws that live in freedom in Brazil gave positive circovirus, a disease without cure that puts at extreme risk the species that inspired the film Rio. Authorities investigate the outbreak and fined a breeding center for failings in its health protocols. Read more
Creadouro Aarinha-Alulu released a demonstration on this Thursday (3) following the operation of the Federal Police that claimed health irregularities in the programme of reintroduction of the species in the town of Curaça (BA). The PF carried out search and detection and investigation of possible proliferation of avian circovirus between wild birds — highly contagious and untreated pathogen, able to compromise populations of psytacids. In the n…
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