Strep and birds?

[noodles123]

I know that dogs can catch and carry strep...I also know that there are a billion different strains. Here is my issue:

My throat is sore and I do not know if I have some type of strep or not, but my bird was exposed to my germs (in all likelihood) before I even was showing symptoms. I don't let her eat after me, but she has this compulsion to preen my eye lashes...so, that's pretty up-close and personal.

IF this is strep (one of the varieties that typically causes sore throats in humans---NOT MRSA or something crazy), can she catch it?

There seems to be a lot of very conflicting information online, so I am looking for a response from someone who has actually discussed this with their avian vet....I know, "better safe than sorry"...BUT I genuinely want to know if I need to worry about her possible exposure...

 

[Scott]

So much is written about zoonotic transmission, mostly from animals to humans. I've never discussed with my vet so cannot give guidance.

General guidance from CDC, not terribly helpful: https://www.cdc.gov/onehealth/basics/zoonotic-diseases.html

 

[Wingnut]

Depending on the environement it is usually very rare for a bird to catch an owners illness. Unless the bird was eating from your mouth, or somehow ingested your blood or mucous, the likliehood would be nil. Transferring of diseases from human to bird do occur, but they are usually pretty rare.
In reality its more common for a parrot owner to catch Parrot Fever then for the bird to catch a human disease.

 

[EllenD]

Bottom-line is yes, it's possible for a bird to contract an active strep-infection from a person, but it's also highly unlikely unless the bird was in direct-contact with your saliva/mouth, or they ate food that was previously inside your mouth. So the likelihood of them actually developing an active strep-infection is very low. And it depends on the particular strain of each different Bacteria how it effects a bird, because the strain(s) of Strep that cause a bacterial throat-infection in humans actually cause topical-skin infections in birds, not infections in their mouths/throat/sinuses/upper-respiratory tract like they cause in us (differences in their mucous membranes from ours)...

So the good news is that if by some chance your bird did come in-contact with your saliva and you have one of the strains of strep that causes a throat infection in us, it will only cause an infection in them topically on their skin, and you'll be able to see it. But the odds of that are extremely slim...