Diagnosis of psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD) viral infection, avian polyomavirus infection, adenovirus infection and herpesvirus infection in psittacine tissues using DNA in situ hybridization.

The evaluation of the usefulness of DNA probes in a diagnostic setting to identify nuclear inclusions in selected viral infections (psittacine beak and feather disease viral infection, avian polyomavirus infection, adenovirus infection and Pacheco's parrot disease) is reported. A DNA in situ hybridization method was used to detect viral nucleic acid in sections of paraffin-embedded tissues coming from birds naturally and/or experimentally infected. It is concluded that DNA probes used for polyomavirus (FN-19) and adenovirus (FN-23) are able to identify nucleic acid of each virus in the cells with nuclear inclusions, and when used for psittacine beak and feather disease virus (FN-8), and Pacheco's parrot disease virus (FN-49) are able to detect viral nucleic acid in cells with or without inclusions.