The only wild specimens of a rare blue parrot which had only recently been returned to its natural habitat in Brazil have been diagnosed with a lethal, incurable virus, the government said in a statement sent to AFP Thursday.

The disease strikes a major blow to a program seeking to return the Spix's macaw -- featured in the 2011 animated film "Rio" -- to its semi-arid natural habitat in northeast Brazil, 25 years after they were declared extinct in the wild.

The species is one of the world's rarest birds.

Brazil's conservation agency, ICMBio, told AFP that since a group of Spix's macaws arrived in the country from Germany in 2020, around 20 had been freed and only 11 had survived.

Now all of the survivors have tested positive for circovirus, which causes beak and feather disease in par

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