So a bit of an update: Romeo is totally asymptomatic and the Aviary he came from will pay for a new test if they think its warranted. Personally, after getting over the knee jerk reaction, and talking to several avian specialists, everyone seems to come to the conclusion, its a total false positive. His labs are indicitive of a super young bird, and not a sick one. His color and energy levels are super. Stool and urates are good, he is definitely not losing weight, either. Little bugger is super happy, and I think he said I love you last night when i said its birdy bed time. Hes also starting to be extremely bonded. His new trick is running down the side of his cage and running after me while attempting to fly. His wings were cut super short when i got him, and im letting them grow out as i did with Mochi. The two of them got spoiled yesterday with new toys. However, I think their favorite toy, is me. Fingers crossed, I think we're good.
It's a very strange case of Polyoma, if it is in-fact a false-positive...However, it is quite possible that he does actually have the virus, but because he's 6 months-old and a healthy bird, his immune system is easily shedding the virus, which is why he's completely asymptomatic, and he'll be totally fine.
I would guess that many hundreds of pet birds who are older juveniles to adults have Polyoma and their owners never know a thing about it because the birds are completely asymptomatic, they shed the virus, and that's it. It's like it never happened, never existed, and it's over with...
From what i can remember from working at the Avian Influenza Lab at PSU, when it comes to Polyoma Virus, most-all of the horrible cases where the birds are very horribly sick and always die from it are
newly-hatched baby birds who are under a month old, and then also very young babies who were under the 3-4 month-old mark, any older and they typically have the immune systems to fight the virus off and shed the virus. The reason is because #1) They're contracting it from their parent birds or other infected birds carrying the virus in the breeder's home/aviary/pet shop where they were bred/hatched/raised, and then #2) Because their immune systems are totally underdeveloped...This is one of the reasons why breeders should always wait to pull chicks from the nest-box until they are at least 2 weeks old, because their immune systems are extremely fragile, as they are not fully developed, and I'll say this again even though people disagree with me, because newly-hatched chicks need to be fed by their mothers for their first 2 weeks of life because they get much-needed antibodies from their mother's "crop milk", which no, is not actually "milk", but is called "crop milk", and does contain necessary and very important antibodies for the newly-hatched chicks...
So with any birds that are older and contract Polyoma, they typically never become symptomatic at all because their immune systems (if in good-health) fight it off, shed the virus, and it's like they never had it to begin with...Hopefully that's exactly what is going on here, and it sounds like it is...
***As far as the "False-Positive" test goes, when we tested samples sent-in for Polyoma Virus, I believe we tested both blood AND fecal swabs/cultures from the vent/cloaca, and I believe it had to be whole blood and not serum...I'm trying to remember this, as it's been since 2003 since I actually did this testing, but I think it was one of the tests that was best done when you had BOTH a blood sample AND a Fecal Swab...You're testing for the Polyoma DNA itself in the samples, using both PCR and immunoflouresence, BUT we didn't have access to an Electron Microscope at the time, as the one that was a part of the Animal Diagnostic Lab at the time was not located in the Avian Influeza Lab, and could not be "contaminated" with avian samples for active testing, because there was only one guy who used it, and he wasn't doing active testing, but rather research of mammalian viruses...But I you can test for it by looking at a whole blood sample under an Electron Scope...
***So a false-positive is always a very good possibility...I'm going to assume that your Vet did PCR testing, and as someone who has run a million PCR tests, as well as ELISA Assays on blood serum, I can tell you that human-error can always play a factor, even with simply kit tests that require several washings of the samples after the use of several different reagents with them...All it takes is one little mistake and BAM!, false-positive...
****Interestingly enough, I do actually remember a case that happened at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School's testing laboratory, where they were commonly using an Electron Microscope to diagnose most-all of the viruses that they could, instead of running PCR or ELISA testing, as it's quicker, cheaper once you already have the Scope, etc. They were testing an entire Sanctuary population for PBFD, and they all came back as being Positive for PBFD, testing done under an Electron Microscope...So they actually went ahead and euthanized several dozen adult parrots who were diagnosed as having PBFD...Well, after the Sanctuary had already euthanized all of these poor parrots, our lab had also been sent samples from the same birds to do PCR testing for PBFD, which takes much longer than Electron Microscope testing...why they didn't wait I have no idea, but our PCR tests were all negative for PBFD...Turned out that these birds didn't have PBFD, but rather Polyoma Virus, who's DNA is extremely similar to that of PBFD...oops...So there ya have it, false-positive happen all the time...that was a tragic and horrible event, and I think we re-ran and re-ran the PCR as many times as we could until they accepted the fact that the birds they had killed did not have PBFD...
Anyway, either way, whether a false-positive or a true-positive, it sounds like your guy is going to be just fine. It's a huge worry nonetheless, I know...If he actually is positive for Polyoma, it's definitely a mystery as to where it came from, and how long he's been carrying it or how he was able to carry it for so long without it being shed...something doesn't add-up quite right, but either way, what's important is that he's completely fine and showing no active signs or symptoms of having the virus...
