Happy Holidays and may God bless you all.
This letter was completed before my last trip to Egypt on the Last part of July 2002. It was not published because I elected to insert my impressions of the trip as soon as I get back. It was an event that took place that forced me to change the content and the priority of this letter. Escape was the best mechanism of not doing anything.
What happen then? It was a case of New Castle disease (PMV) in an imported shipment from Egypt that was intended for, Ahmed Ibrahim ,who is residing in Pennsylvania. Ahmed who is originally from Egypt and similarly grew up appreciating the Swifts became determined to import birds and exchange blood lines with me. After numerous contacts he was able to connect with fanciers and brokers to buy him six pairs of Swifts from Egypt and then have them delivered to New York Quarantine.
His daily calls to the USDA department were encouraging for the new comers. He was keen on updating with the status of his birds and on his last call before my trip, he indicated that a female Otati had become very sick in the Quarantine. I mentioned to him that I have lost birds in the Quarantine before and added that few poor quality birds are not even out of the normal in a fairly good number of imported birds.
In Egypt I went on a shopping spree for Pigeons and shipped twenty birds to be received by my broker in LAX , who in turn handed them over to the USDA inspectors. I have as always vaccinated all shipped birds against PMV. Normally I keep and watch the birds for 10 days prior to shipping, but I had to cut that time to three days to make up time for a work conference in Switzerland and other commitments.
As I got back to San Diego, a message from the USDA department indicated that one of my birds had suddenly died after arriving by three days without displaying any unusual symptoms.
Few days later, I called Ibrahim to check on what he got from Egypt. He was very emotional and indicated that they were all condemned, because the sick Otati was diagnosed by New Castle disease according to USDA lab in NY. I was terrified while listening to him and thinking what if the bird had a case of PMV, but went unnoticed by the attendant? and then what if the rest of the birds did not have enough time to develop immunity against the vaccine. I was distracted even more when another message was left on the seventh day on my answering machine for the demise of yet another bird. I phoned the attendant who indicated that all the birds have firm droppings and are moving and eating well. He also said that "he was getting ready to do cloaca swabs to screen the birds for New castle". I called in a week, after sleepless nights, hoping for the best. The results were satisfactory, but of course I had to wait again to get similar results on the dead birds. As you know the birds are kept for thirty days before being released. As of the 28th day, there were no results at their disposal on the two dead birds . At this point I knew that the rest of the birds are free of the disease and not even contagious to other birds, since more than two weeks have lapsed without any problems. Now, how am I going to argue this with the chief Veterinarian in case that the two dead birds were positive?
I have prepared my case for the worst scenario in writing; however their results finally came back on the 29th day as negative for PMV. I was so glad to pick up the remaining eighteen birds on the following day, pay the lab fees and the overtime that was still due from shipping . I was in such a hurry that I even didn't sign a check for $500.00 and was gone unchecked by the attendant among a pile of paperwork. Don't worry about the government, they notified me three months later of what took place.
The loss of sixteen birds between Ibrahim and I is a tragedy in speeding the build up of ES in the US. Money is not usually the major issue that worry a fancier who undertake such a project under consideration. It is that particular bird that he picks and dream of to compliment another group of birds he has. Whether my two birds died from a shock, West Nile Virus or other Virus, I will not know because the screen by USDA is limited now to New Castle. In general I am satisfied if half of what I bring gives me what's needed for a gene pool of my liking. At this point I believe that I have a great representation for each group and don't think that I will bring additional birds for few years to come!. Don't you just hate to swallow your words.

E-mail; I have chosen an e-mail from a letter from Canada to cover the theme of this letter. A second e-mail from Angus Naples of Scotland, to be discussed on the next letter, came as a reflection on Rose's article of May 2002 as of the validity to dub a bird with loose feathers a Swift!.

Gary Owen and Tracy Morrison from Canada sent me a letter and included many great shots for several mixed groups of ES. I will display them to help you in your future breeding programs. Analysis of what their parents might be, to the best of my knowledge, will accompany those pictures. I ask others to give their experience and send more pictures to help others not to repeat the same mistakes.
Some of you have commented that exposing the offspring's of mixed groups is an excellent leering tool as presenting proper pictures because it puts a damper on the curiosity that arises from what would they look like?. Therefore it will save experimentation time. I agree with that, However; I felt that most of those who send their pictures for evaluation don't want to be labeled as deliberate breeders of mixed groups and have asked me not to display their photos even after their names become withheld. I have stopped as you know evaluating pictures as one on one basis. They are for all of us to share and don't feel bad about it because I have few of those in my loft to share with you in coming letters.
I might add that in my last visit to Egypt I have noticed an increase in the number of mixed birds. Those guys are well versed on the standards and do that for a good reason and know where it's leading to. Another thing also that most of us breed birds in one open compartment and that leads to problems by itself. If you intend to mix, then you must set a clear and a limited plan and don't use your experimental product with another group. If it doesn't wortk you should start all over.

Now let us share a brief of the joint letter from Gary Owen and Tracy Morrison:
You were recommended by Michel Phares in Canada to give us your opinion, if any of these birds are worth keeping as stock birds or if any could be brought back to their original families?. We know that they were originally from Ahmed Hassan in Arizona before he sold out to another source in California. We think that the buyer has let every family to breed with each other without any control. Some of these birds carry their wings below their tail. From what we read this is a characteristic of the Ablak family and some others, but they don't have the coloring or the beaks of these birds. Most of the beaks appear long and many birds appear standing tall. At any rate, if there are any birds we might be able to use, we would be happy. Otherwise these birds were given to us for free and there will be no financial losses to do without. We have come to like this breed very much and want to develop from excellent qualities only. We would like to invest in the best birds. There is no point in having mediocre birds when we are serious about quality.
We also look forward to watch your video. As of July we will be on line, so it will be easier to keep in touch.
Sign:Garry owen and Tracy Morrison.

Thank you Tracy and Gary for contributing to us. This has been an excellent photography.
The display of those pictures is placed under the following links;
Random mixing of Swifts
Otati and Rehani mix
Red and yellow mix
Other random mixing
The first link is an article that I had written and published in the "Deput" over five years ago and warned strongly against mixing. It is your turn and those who have had the Swifts for a while to lead in warnig beginners of the outcome.

I would like to mention that I will not alert you by e-mail when the next newsletter becomes available, unless you indicate so. I am doing that not because of self inflated ego, but because the ever increasing returned mail. We all change our e-mail for one reason or another and that must be updated.
I have prompted over 500 e-mail's from people visiting the site in the past. A great amount of time is required in deleting old addresses and updating the list. It is beyond my means at this point to take care of that.
So, please let me know if you want to be alerted when I have a new update.
Otherwise, please, visit at your convenience and don't forget to drop me a personal note of your thoughts when your time permits.