Pigeons, Malathion and Parkinson's

Frosty, Specks, Skipper and Dunne      1963

Introduction

This essay recalls a memory of precious childhood pets.  Their care led me into the improper use of a toxic pesticide that has been implicated as a possible contributing cause of PD.  Of course this one incident may mean little and yet across a lifetime many such events could have a cumulative effect.

 Pigeons, Malathion and Parkinson's

I looked up at the darkening sky to see if any of my pigeons were still flying. I could see none but when I looked across the pasture to their pigeon coop I could see that one or two were still lingering by their small hinged entry door near the top. Then I walked across the yard and followed the path around the pasture fence to their coop so I could close them in for the night.  By the time I got there the last couple of birds had already walked through the door and had found a place on a roost.  I closed them in and opened the larger door to the loft.  I sat down on the edge of the entry so I could be quiet and spend a little time with them.  Pairs of Pigeons settling for the night convey a special kind of peace that was soothing for my young soul. Many, many nights the birds appeared to listen in silent reverence as I shared the dreams, frustrations and crushes of a boy just entering his teens.

I leaned over and picked a white speckled bird I called “Frosty” from his roost and held him gently but firmly. Frosty was my favorite and 50 years later he retains that status in my mind.  That evening my eye caught sight of something dark and threatening moving on his breast. It was a bug of some kind that did not look at all friendly.(feather lice)  I spread his wing out and found that the bug had plenty of friends. Unfortunately poor Frosty was crawling with lice.

The following day after school I looked at the rest of my birds and found that Frosty was not alone. Most of them were infested with the bothersome lice. I do not recall that I consulted any adults about this problem and I do not know why that I proceeded on my own but I did.  I went to our farm shed, which at the time I thought held everything one might need to keep a part time farm running.  A former chicken house, the shed was kind of dark and dusty and held a mixture of tools, paint and chemicals of various kinds.  I prowled the shelves looking for something I could spray or sprinkle on the birds to kill the lice.  There among the dusty bottles of chemicals, paint and various tools I found a box of powdered  bug killer.  The box was labeled to kill a long list of troublesome bugs that I thought surely included those on my pigeons.

"Baldy"  1963

I picked up the box and carried it straight to the pigeon coop.  I caught each bird and liberally sprinkled the bug powder over each one of them. I also missed some of the time and sprinkled it on myself, a sort of collateral damage.  I had no protective clothing and latex gloves did not seem to be around back then.

At routine intervals the lice would return and I repeated this process many times.  Eventually the inevitable happened and my Dad saw me with the box of bug powder and asked what I was doing with it. I said that I was sprinkling the powder on my pigeons to kill the bugs I had found on them.  I was really quite proud of myself.

I still remember the surprised look on his face when he heard what I was doing.  I also remember the way he shook his head when he said, “you are lucky the pigeons are not dead, that box contains pure malathion powder."

Fortunately the birds did not die but I had added one more careless exposure to myself and had risked my pigeons by improperly using a pesticide that is now believed to be one of many chemicals associated with PD.

Malathion is an organophosphate insecticide. It interferes with the nervous system by blocking an enzyme that normally acts as an off switch by ending the signal. Without the  enzyme, the nerve keeps firing and eventually the nervous system fails. Malathion is used both in agricultural and residential settings.(National Pesticide Information Center)