Chlamydia psittacosis is a likely cause of ocular melanoma, alone or in combination with co-infections and environmental triggers, in Auburn, Huntersville, New York, and Baton Rouge. The basis for this belief is:
1. In 1972, Auburn University was overrun with pigeons, to the point pigeons were defacing buildings and causing roof collapse with bird droppings. The university had to undertake “the great pigeon extermination”;
2. In a 1973 study, rabbits were infected intravenously with chlamydia psittacosis, and the rabbits ALL developed eye infections, shortly thereafter;
3. In 1990, an unusually high number of cases of ocular melanoma were identified in Auburn Alabama: Thirty-two or more cases have been identified in students, faculty and those living near Auburn University;
4. Three friends, who lived in the same dormitory at Auburn University, developed ocular melanoma and started a support group for the many victims of ocular melanoma who had contact with Auburn University;
5. Chlamydia psittacosis from birds nesting in heating and cooling systems of workplaces has been reported to infect people who live or work in the building;
6. The Southeastern Raptor Center, at Auburn University, takes in hundreds of sick raptors every year, from around the world, and when the birds are deemed healthy the raptors are released in the community;
7. The Southeastern Raptor Center is open to the public periodically during the year;
8. In 2008, a raptor was identified as not healthy enough for release, by the Southeastern Raptor Center, and the bird was then transferred to the Carolina Raptor Center, in Huntersville, North Carolina;
9. In 2009, the first case of ocular melanoma was identified in Huntersville, North Carolina, and thereafter an unusually high incidence of ocular melanoma was identified in Huntersville;
10. Many of those afflicted with ocular melanoma, in Huntersville, attended the same high school—a high school which had a summer program at the Carolina Raptor Center;
11. New cases of ocular melanoma have emerged in New York, which is home to many raptors, and has several raptor centers and raptor hospitals;
12. New cases of ocular melanoma have emerged in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where LSU has a veterinary teaching hospital that takes in sick birds and raptors, and when deemed healthy the birds are released back into the wild;
13. The former governor of Louisiana served in the state capital of Louisiana, in Baton Rouge, from 2004-2008, and during her term Louisiana endured Hurricane Katrina: She was diagnosed with ocular melanoma in 2011;
14. Baton Rouge is on the eastern banks of the Mississippi, near the intersection of waterways, and has many lakes, which would attract migratory birds;
15. In 2015, the Birmingham Zoo, in Birmingham, Alabama, had an outbreak of chlamydia psittacosis at its avian sanctuary, and had to close the bird sanctuary to the public;
16. Birds do not necessarily show symptoms of chlamydia psittacosis, and may not be identified as sick or as harboring chlamydia psittacosis before release, from the Southeastern Raptor Center or LSU Veterinary Hospital;
17. A raptor center housing sick and caged birds from around the world, could allow pathogens to combine in the birds and emerge as new serovars of chlamydia psittacosis, which are more virulent;
18. Pigeons and raptors worldwide harbor chlamydia psittacosis;
19. The birds most likely to be infected with chlamydia psittacosis are pigeons and caged raptors;
20. Raptors have been known to eat pigeons, and contract psittacosis from eating pigeons;
21. In Italy, virtually 100% of the pigeons are infected with chlamydia psittacosis: The population engages with pigeons, and believe pigeons nesting on the roof of a home is a sign of luck: Italy has a high rate of ocular melanoma, cancers and rare cancers, and chronic diseases associated with chlamydia psittacosis;
22. Vietnam veterans have a 17% higher rate of eye cancer, which was also likely caused by chlamydia psittacosis acquired during deployment in Vietnam, alone or combined with any of the other four pathogens, and/or exposure to environmental triggers;
23. Birds develop ocular melanoma, and are believed to be good models for research into ocular melanoma;
24. Animals and humans often develop the same chronic disease from the same immortal pathogens;
25. Of the five pathogens known to causes ocular melanoma, chlamydia psittacosis is the most capable of jumping 500 miles to a new city, creating a new cluster of victims, because the pathogen is carried by birds along migratory routes and in. Huntersville the transfer of a less than healthy bird from Auburn;
26. Chlamydia psittacosis has been associated with several different types of cancer, including ocular melanoma, melanoma, lymphoma, and secondary cancers of the pancreas, liver and brain, which have developed in some of the ocular melanoma victims suffering metastasis and new cancers;
27. Cancer doctors and State agencies doing epidemiologic investigations do not think in terms of infectious causes, nor are they educated in relevant infectious causes: Thus, the investigators and researchers search primarily for genes and environmental toxins (but not the environmental trigger of eye make-up, or raptors or pigeon droppings);
28. The investigators in Auburn identified the Southeastern Raptor Center as a common link in May 2018, but did not understand the significance of the finding, and did not pursue investigation of bird pathogens;
29. The newly discovered locations with a higher incidence of ocular melanoma follows the EXACT raptor migratory route, from Louisiana to Alabama to North Carolina to New York;
30. Baton Rouge, Auburn, Huntersville and New York also have raptor centers, and veterinary hospitals that take in sick birds;
31. Chronic chlamydia psittacosis infection can disperse abnormal proteins, which attach to and change genes;
32. The majority of victims are women, suggesting eye-make-up may be an environmental co-factor triggering ocular melanoma: Eye make-up, particularly mascara, can be a vehicle for the pathogens to remain on and around the eye, or eye make-up leads to chronic blepharitis causing dry eye and an increased susceptibility to pathogens invading the eye;
33. Pathogens in the eye have been reported to migrate within the eye, from the cornea backwards or from the retina forwards.
The investigation of ocular melanoma clusters should proceed to using sophisticated blood testing of humans and birds, and comparison of pathogens and serovars in humans and birds; and to testing victims for chlamydia psittacosis and for any of the other four infectious pathogens identified in scientific literature as causing ocular melanoma (a false negative test may occur from prior treatments, but does not exclude the diagnosis), alone or in combination. Discovery of the cause of the clusters of ocular melanoma has the potential to advance discoveries in other types of cancer.
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