Do PMV birds require a major change of diet?

Here's the big question: should foods that (apparently) aggravate cold sores, caused by the herpes virus be withheld for PMV patients? Which translates as 'do all virus infections follow similar patterns?'

This discussion was initiated by my daughter, on witnessing first hand the ups and downs of the disease in Sammy, and especially the fact that he always convulsed more after eating.
'I think he shouldn't be having peas', she said. 'They aggravate viral conditions.'

So yesterday he only had sweetcorn plus vitamins, and today he has, in fact, spent a longer time on his feet. I'm introducing a little crumbled boiled egg for protein.

Basically it's down to two aminoacids, lysine and arginine -- the first combats the herpes virus, the second aggravates it. Most of the elements in a pigeon's diet are very rich in arginine, especially peas and peanuts. Could this be by recovery takes so long and is so patchy?

Here's the blurb I found. I would greatly appreciate your views on this.

If you are searching for foods that prevent cold sores, you are wise indeed. Nutrition is the most effective and natural way to eliminate cold sore outbreaks.

Lysine and arginine are two amino acids much talked about in their relation to cold sores. Amino acids are small fractions of protein that your body needs everyday to stay in tiptop shape. To create new cold sore virus, the cell needs certain materials. One necessary building block for herpes virus replication is arginine.

Lysine has been proven very effective in treating and preventing cold sores. Lysine prevents cold sores mainly by replacing some of the arginine in your cells. If you have a higher lysine than arginine content in the cells, you are less likely to get cold sores.

Foods that prevent cold sores are rated by how high the ratio of lysine to arginine content. Most foods contain both lysine and arginine. If there is the same amount of both, the ratio is 1 to 1. If there is twice as much lysine as arginine, then the ratio is 2 to 1. This is an excellent ratio for preventing cold sores.

So the strategy here is to increase the ratio of lysine over arginine in your diet. For example: cheddar cheese, in one ounce or 28 grams, contains 588 milligrams of lysine and 267 milligrams of arginine. This is a ratio of lysine to arginine of 2.2 to 1. Excellent.

Here is a list of foods that prevent cold sores. Most meat, particularly beef, fish, turkey and chicken. Cheese, yogurt, milk and other dairy products are also quite high in lysine and often offer a 2 to 1 ratio. Ricotta cheese is unusually high in lysine. Eggs, soy beans, soy products and brewers yeast will also provide you higher lysine intake.

Here is a short list of foods that cause cold sores. These foods have high content of arginine to lysine. Most nuts, including peanuts, almonds, cashews and walnuts. Grains, such as wheat and oats. Seeds, such as sunflower and sesame, are arginine providers. Also avoid most beans, peas and lima beans. Most vegetables are higher in arginine than lysine, such as carrots, radishes, eggplant, and cabbage. Chocolate is high in arginine.

So far I haven't noticed any appreciable changes in behaviour.
Initially there were less convulsions, but over the following 24-hour period I would say they averaged almost the same as before. A slight improvement in alertness etc, may simply be due to the continuation of the healing process.
I'll persevere for another day or two, and if the results are the same I'll presume the diet didn't have an effect on the PMV and re-introduce the peas.

This is very interesting question. In general, sick people, mammals and birds require lighter, easy to digest diet. In some cases fasting is desirable. Fasting in cases of birds does not mean total deprivation of food but more on administering glucose with water.
In many situations higher part of barley in their seed mix is desirable. Barley is low on proteins and high on vitamins and promotes metabolism. The presence of husks makes the mash more porous, thus facilitating the action of the food juices and bacteria, therefore assists digestion.
Pigeon herpes virus and human herpes virus belong to the same gene, but do not manifest the same way. There are no cold sores in pigeons, it is meningitis and encephalitis besides disbalanced immune system. Foods rich in vitamins, promoting immune system should be suitable in viral infections too.

At least in this case, the change of diet had no effect whatsoever. So I guess we have to conclude that either this virus behaves differently, or that the original information on the roles of the two aminoacids was not accurate.
So it's back to corn+peas!