Asper?

[Wingnut]

Hey everyone! This is a kind of embarrassing....I bought oranges about a week ago, and had about 5 left in the bag sitting in my kitchen. For the past 2 days I had this weird smell in my home and I could not find the source of it....Well I found it was one of the oranges! It turned completely GREEN. The entire orange was covered in a quarter inch layer of green powder. Upon touching it, this powder was released into the air like smoke! I have never seen a mold like this in my life. I looked the growth up here. I am kind of freaking out now because this fine powder was just blown into the air, and its the cause of ASPER in birds! I lowered my AC and opened my kitchen window to see if I can air some of this out...but should I be worried? My bird (Kiwi) has been acting more tired than usual...

 

[noodles123]

It's happened to me (green oranges)...I do run air purifiers, but I am sure you are fine. Obviously don't make it a habit, but if your bird's immune health was decent, I would just clear it out and clean (using bird safe cleaners) and don't blow the spores around ANY MORE THAN YOU MUST. Keep an eye on him, but aspergillosis can be contracted from many sources that are fairly common- it is generally repeat exposure and underlying conditions that allow it to take over--not saying you should expose your bird to things like peanuts or mold on purpose, but...my bird survived.

The mold that causes "asper" is already all over the place anyway (YES, YOU WANT TO AVOID UNNECESSARY EXPOSURE AND-- YES- certain exposures make contraction more likely)..An exposure like that in an otherwise healthy bird is probably going to pass without major issue--unless you have the world's worst HVAC system and an already compromised bird..then MAYBE...but like I said, you are probably okay but do watch him.