JIM EMERTON CHATS TO THE GREAT DR ZSOLT TALABER OF HUNGARY.

 

 

Q: How did your interest in pigeons evolve?

 

I was born in Budapest, but I spent my childhood in Paris. The first color pictures about me show  a very little blonde kid stands on Champs-Élysées among a lot of pigeons and feeds them with rice. So I met the pigeons very early. A lot of pigeons... Probably the very first animals I have seen  in my life were those pigeons and this was a deep impact for me, I think so.

Q: What made you specialise as a vet?

 

When I was a kid I had a lot of animals. Turtles, pigeons, parrots, ornamental fish, hamsters, rabbits, cats, and dogs. My first dog, unfortunately, died at a young age in distemper. Perhaps this is why I became a veterinarian.

 

Q: Recognised as a global authority, please describe the essence of your unique, and wonderful books.

 

Thank you for the praise. I believe, in the books I have been able to accomplish the purpose of each specialist book writer: to give academic knowledge in a fully understandable way.

When I opened my clinic twenty years ago, it quickly spread that the flocks we manage how healthy are and what excellent results they achieved. We have surprising results with very small 40-60 flocks, and of course with the big ones, too. A lot of fanciers visited me from Hungary, and then from abroad, as well, to know the ’Secret’. Many e-mails and visitors took a lot of time, so I decided to write our knowledge and methods, and publish in a book.

 

I published my first pigeon specialist book (’Pigeons and their Economical Health Care’)in Hungary. It has quickly conquered the Hungarian fanciers: it has become a bestseller within two weeks. One year later this book was published in English, too. It is very popular in abroad, I think so. So far, we've transported it to more than seventy countries all over the world.

 

Many people ask me, what is the secret of the success of the book. The book itself is written in plain English and is not too technical. The explanations are for the everyday working fancier, who wants to sit and read something he can understand and not have to go rushing to the dictionary to find out what it means? It is easy to understand, and contains important chapters not yet published in other books.

 

Once you will have the book you have only one problem, as Ad Schaerlaeckens, world-renowned pigeon racer wrote, ’When you lend it out you never see it back anymore?’ And this is right: I know Hungarian fancier who has ordered this same book third times?

 

Another secret to success is that the book shows that without medicines we often achieve much better results than overdose medication. It also provides accurate information on how to make treatment successful, gentle, yet economical, if you need to use a drug.

 

After the success of my first book I became a renowned pigeon specialist writer, and so I could ask some of my great colleague in the world to make a book together - to every fancier. I published this international pigeon book in the very popular Question and Answer format, written by Gordon Chalmers (Canada), Wim Peters (South Africa), Colin Walker (Australia), Pascal Lanneau (Belgium), and me. The Vets' Tips for Fanciers is a 300 pages, hardback, full color book, with many excellent photos - about loss of health, restoring and maintaining health.

 

Besides the "everyday" themes, it also has some extraordinary curiosities such as the special case of a "viviparous pigeon" illustrated by photographs.

 

Anyone who reads these books will be guaranteed a better fancier. You will know what to do with your pigeons, and, more importantly, you will know why.

 

This knowledge is the key to success in pigeon-breeding. If we know what to do and why, we can optimize the routines of everyday life for our own flock, and we can also react to unexpected things. This makes the average fancier a professional fancier.

 

The only problem with my books is that packaging and posting are very time-consuming and shipping costs are terrible to remote countries. So we decided that the latest release would not be paper-based, but in e-book format (publishing in November 2018). Anyone can download them from the Internet at a much lower price than printed books.

 

Q: What are your specialisms in pigeon, health and disease research?

 

I have been dealing with feeding for several years, more precisely with the nutritional values of feed. It is well known that, due to fertilizers, cereals and other crops hardly contain useful trace elements and vitamins. They contain residues of pesticides and other pollutants. These can be very damaging to pigeons, other animals, and of course to humans as well. This is a very important research area. Unfortunately, we find that the quality of feed and food in many countries is getting worse.

 

Q: Who are your contemporaries in your fields of work?

 

The aforementioned research work includes veterinarians, agricultural engineers, and some of my colleagues working in the field. We regularly consult with human doctors and dietitians, as well.

 

Q: Does it give you much pleasure to be an author of learned books?

 

Absolutely. My books are very popular both in Hungary and abroad. I have received many e-mails and phone calls, and of course many questions about pigeons health. I think, besides the readability of the books, the practicality is what fanciers most appreciate. I'm proud of this. Thanks for the confidence of the fanciers who buy and read my books.

 

Q: How do you feel about the  use of antibiotics, medicines and so-called natural remedies for

racing pigeons in 2018? 

 

Unfortunately, more and more antibiotics are used in pigeon breeding. The usage of antibiotics is sometimes necessary, but it is often more harmful than useful. They are often ineffective for pathogens, but they are always harmful to the pigeons, our environment, and of course our wallet. With epidemiology,feed with good nutritional value and appropriate vaccines, we can achieve much better results than with antibiotics. In general, natural medicines are also good because they are more environment friendly, less burden the pigeons, and usually no resistance develops to them.

 

Q: Is there an ideal, or optimal feeding regimen for a racing pigeon?

 

There must be, but this is different in each loft. This depends on so many circumstances that it is not possible to answer the question concretely. The best professional books can provide only guidelines for this question, and these guidelines must be optimized by each fancier for its own flock and its own circumstances. Many fanciers do not do this, and that's why they expect success in vain.

  

Q: Please identify the leading pathogenic viruses and bacteria that affect the health of pigeons. 

  

Among the viruses, paramyxovirus and adenovirus should be mentioned. Among the bacteria, Salmonella is the number one public enemy. You should also pay attention to chlamydia, as they can cause severe, difficult-to-treat illness in humans.

 

Regarding infectious diseases, I'm a proponent of vaccination. According to our decade-long experience, if the fancier regularly vaccinates - at least - against paramyxo and parathyfus, it will occur less problem not only with these specific diseases, but interestingly with other diseases, as well.

  

Q: Can you name foods and supplements that may raise the performance levels of pigeons?

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These are the complete feed. They contain all the components that are required for good performance.

Good feed used to be normal, but nowadays it is a kind of Scotch mist. It may look good, but its content is poor. It does not contain the necessary trace elements, vitamins, just mere energy. So our pigeons can’t get far. We are always looking for the latest panacea, the latest performance enhancer. Rather, we should start with the basics.

 

If there is no healthy feed, there is no health. If there is no health, there is no power. Listen to the words of my excellent colleague Wim Peters: If I had to bet on a great, well-known, but not quite healthy racing pigeon, or on an average ability but perfectly healthy racing pigeon, I would bet a large sum on the latter.

 

Related to the previous question: We can not expect success from medicines or vaccines,

if the feed is lacking in trace elements. If there is not enough trace element in the body,

the immune system does not work properly, and we can throw the best vaccines and antibiotics into the trash.

 

Do we talk a lot about old times when our pigeons were healthy without any kind of treatment? Compare the trace element content of the feed crops growing on manure at that time with the current fertilizer and GMO feed, and think about it. We can also wonder why there are so many fat and malnourished (sic!) people today.

 Q: How would a person practice inbreeding within a colony of pigeons Zsolt?

 

Well, you can write whole books about it. This is the theme of my latest book. (So ??far it has only been published in Hungarian). It's a nice and difficult subject, and of course a long one. In short, the point is in a few sentences: My experience is that most fanciers prefer quantity to quality. I call here quality like an outstanding flight result of a racing pigeon or a rare color of a pigeon, and the quality means the genetic stability of the entire flock. If we would like to achieve short term success with inbreeding, we can do this relatively easily and quickly. We may get some excellent individuals, it will be only a temporary success. Because of the excessive inbreeding the genetic quality of our entire flock is degraded, which has catastrophic consequences in the long run, especially in the health of the pigeons. (And let's note: that's why we always lose our best pigeons the fastest!) We can not achieve good results in the long run if we overestimate inbreeding. Thus we will not find joy in our flock, which would be even more important. We will be just annoyed, and then we have to restart it all. So slow and steady wins the race.

  

Q: Are you creating more books for us all to read with great interest? 

 

First of all, I would like to translate the above-mentioned book into English. Its title is Breeding Season.

  

Q: Does veterinary science of pigeons have an illustrious future?

 

Hopefully. Unfortunately, nowadays there are few veterinarians who are expert in pigeons or are willing to deal with them. This is the case in my country, and I think that in most countries there is such a problem.

  

Q: Please comment on any aspect of your life and work, as it is fascinating to us all.

 

I have been working in Kecskemét for 20 years, which is located in the middle of Hungary. I have a consulting room and a veterinary drugstore. Thanks to the pharmacy, I know the effects, benefits and disadvantages of certain medicines, and this helps a lot in my work and in the writing of professional books.

 

I have not so much free time besides the work, the pigeons, and the books. I spend my free time with my family and my dog. We are fond of activities doing in the nature like trekking, cycling, and angling.