Pigeons, Alas

When Philadelphia traced six cases of human virus pneumonia to pigeons (TIME, Jan. 8), Chicago and Buffalo gave their pigeons long, hard looks. Chicago found over 47% of its birds infected; Buffalo found its pigeons "a nuisance." Result: Chicago may kill its pigeons soon; Buffalo will begin at once to trap its birds, eat them or let the A.S.P.C.A. get rid of them. But an advisory committee headed by Dr. Morris Fishbein, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, has pooh-poohed the pigeon menace: "There is not sufficient. . . evidence . . . to warrant an indiscriminate elimination. . . . There is good evidence that only a small percentage of [human] infection is definitely related to ... birds."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.