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January 05, 2005
Useless Factoid of the Day: Psittacosis
I heard the word 'psittacosis' in a medical context on TV the other day and found that I have really no clue what sort of a condition it was. So, I got curious and decided to look it up. If you have a pet parrot or parakeet, you better listen up. Psittacosis is an infectious disease that can spread from parrots to humans. Psittacus is Latin for parrot, in case you were wondering. In human beings, psittacosis manifests itself as flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, headache, muscle aches and a dry cough). Hepatitis and neurological complications can also occur. Don't inhale dried secretions from your bird ;) That's how it gets transmitted. Today's Useless Factoid was brought to you by the World's Biggest Repository of Useless Knowledge, me.Posted by Vishy at January 5, 2005 09:06 PM
Comments
Hey vish..
Call it coincidence or whatever.. a week after your factoid.. there is this mammal that was discovered in china.. which used to feed on young dinosaurs called psittacosaurs ("parrot-dinosaur").
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4165973.stm
Posted by: Abhi at January 13, 2005 04:28 PM