Earthworms as food - Disease hazard??

[Tiaris]

I've noticed the local wild Eastern Yellow Robins (& many other species) love earthworms & curlgrubs (Christmas beetle larvae). I intend to keep/breed EYRs in the future & was wondering whether earthworms as a possible regular livefood offering would pose a serious disease risk. I should point out that worms would be bred in contained worm farms & not fed animal manures. Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[Myzomela]

Hi Tiaris,

Earthworms can act as intermediate hosts for several internal parasite species so there is a theoretical risk there.
How important a risk depends on how susceptible EYRs are too internal parasites (who really knows?) and how close you are to a potential source of these inernal parasites eg if your neighbour kept free range chooks then your risk would be higher.
However, in a farmed worm situation this is not likely to be great, although it does depend a little on where your worms were originally sourced.

The diseases of softbills is still in its infancy as these birds just aren't kept often enough. Reports from necropsies of zoo softbills are sporadic and not enough info is available yet for us to start getting a true picture of what diseases the different species are particulalrly susceptible to.