Brazilian police said Wednesday they were probing the outbreak of a lethal virus among some of the last Spix’s macaws, one of the world’s rarest birds -- made famous as the blue parrot in the 2011 animated film “Rio.”
Until recent efforts to rewild the endangered species, the Spix’s macaw had not been seen in its natural habitat for 25 years. Its conservation has sparked tensions between private breeders and the government.
In 2020, a group of the birds was brought from Germany under a program to reintroduce them to their natural habitat in northeastern Brazil.
Last week, Brazil’s conservation agency, ICMBio, said all 11 surviving Spix’s macaws that had been released to the wild tested positive for the incurable circovirus, which is considered deadly.
Another 20 in captivity were also infected, the government agency said.
The agency has fined the breeding center 1.8 million reais ($336,000) for failing to implement biosafety protocols to curb the spread of the virus.
In a statement, police said they had seized cellphones and computers from the Spix’s Macaw Breeding Center as part of “Operation Blue Hope.”
They added the probe could lead to charges of spreading a disease capable of harming wildlife and obstructing environmental inspections.
The center had resisted efforts to recapture the wild Spix’s macaws, which a court ordered them to do in October.
In statements sent to AFP, the breeding center said only five of 103 macaws under its care had tested positive for circovirus, which causes beak and feather disease in parrot species.
The center argues that tropical parrots such as the Spix’s macaw are more resistant to circovirus than those on other continents, and does not believe it is a death sentence.
It denied accusations of unsanitary conditions and said it was “completely calm” over the police investigation.
ICMBio said it had used the most rigorous tests available but conceded the interpretation of results was “not simple.”
The film “Rio” is about a Spix’s macaw that is raised in captivity in the United States and returns to Brazil to try to save its species.
Real-life conservation efforts have been worthy of a high-stakes drama, marked by institutional conflict, concerns over unscrupulous breeders and sales to private collectors.
The breeding center is a partner of the German Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP), which holds 75 percent of the world’s registered Spix’s macaws, according to ICMBio.
Brazil terminated its partnership with ACTP in 2024 after the German organization sold 26 of the birds to a private zoo in India without its consent.
Brazil has repeatedly raised concerns at meetings of CITES, the global wildlife trade regulator, over loopholes that allow for the sale of captive-bred Spix’s macaws and fuel demand for the fragile species.
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