A bird specialty store owner wrote me recently, concerned about potential tuberculosis (TB) exposure. A client’s bird had been diagnosed with "human TB" and that person had spent a lot of time with the bird. The source of the TB hadn’t been identified, and the store owner was worried about the risk that he/she had been exposed

Like any animal, disease outbreaks can occur in wild birds. Unless they are large outbreaks they often go unnoticed, but smaller outbreaks can sometimes be encountered by homeowners with bird feeders. Because bird feeders are mixing sites for birds, they are also sites of disease transmission and a place where deaths can be identified. In