Topics in Medicine and SurgeryPostmortem Survey of Disease Conditions in Backyard Poultry
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
For the purpose of this study, only chickens were included. Records between July 2010 and July 2014 from the Avian Health and Food Safety Laboratory (AHFSL, a branch of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Washington State University) were searched. Records from January 2001 to December 2013 from the Fresno, Tulare, and Turlock branches of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS, University of California, Davis) were also analyzed. Backyard flocks
Results
A total of 780 cases were submitted to AHFSL during the 4 year study period, resulting in an annual average of 195 cases. Unfortunately, disease codes were only available for 373 cases. In contrast, 1225 cases were submitted and analyzed from CAHFS. The diagnosis frequency ranks for these cases are presented in Table. In summary, Marek’s disease (MD) was by far the most common disease condition diagnosed in both laboratories. Bacterial infections were more commonly identified at CAHFS (34.9%)
Discussion
MD, which is caused by a herpes virus, is described as a disease of young chickens, (e.g., 5-month old and younger), before they reach maturity, but has been diagnosed in birds up to 1 year of age. When birds are initially infected with MD, there is little overt evidence of disease. Clinical disease signs may take 4 weeks or longer to develop, depending on the virulence of the virus and the site of tumor growth. Typical clinical disease signs associated with MD include weight loss, paralysis,
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2017, Journal of Exotic Pet MedicineCitation Excerpt :The parasitic disease is recognized by the presence of elongated cysts (sarcocysts) (i.e., noted grossly as rice-grain sized lesions) located in skeletal musculature of the breast, thigh, and neck of birds.11 Although MD is recognized as one of the major disease threats for chickens and represents one of the leading causes of mortality in backyard flocks,3,4 there are only a few reported cases of pectoral muscle lymphomas due to MDV infection in this avian species. In this case, the gross, histopathological, and polymerase chain reaction results provided the definitive diagnosis of MD in the 3 chickens submitted for examination.
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