All local councils should tackle pigeon menace

I WAS glad to read about the Penang Island City Council’s (MBPP) aggressive drive to reduce the pigeon population in the state (“Grounding Penang’s pigeon problem”, The Star, Nov 2; online at bit.ly/3USBoLL). Not many are aware of the health hazards and the harm that can be caused by these birds.

In 2021, a five-year-old boy developed symptoms of psittacosis, a disease you get from contact with birds infected with Chlamydia psittaci bacteria; he had to be rushed to hospital after he developed high fever and cough and was diagnosed with inflammation of the brain.