Veterinary Services

Reproductive tract disorders were diagnosed in different categories of birds. Egg peritonitis and impaction of the oviduct was found in Japanese quail with elevated mortality, and egg peritonitis was consistently diagnosed in a flock of 1,900 free-range layers with reported mortality of four birds each day. Impaction of the oviduct and egg peritonitis was also diagnosed in an adult canary from a collection where mortality was occurring in breeding birds.

A hepatocellular carcinoma with secondary bacterial infection was considered to be the cause of marked liver enlargement with necrotic foci in a five-year-old hen from a small backyard flock.

Aspergillus fumigatus and Salmonella Typhimurium DT2 were recovered from the viscera of a very thin racing pigeon with white to yellow nodules in the lungs and similar plaques in the airsacs. Histopathological examination of the bursa of Fabricius subsequently revealed botryoid inclusions consistent with an underlying circovirus infection. Immunosuppression caused by a circovirus infection was also suspected in an African grey parrot in which gross post mortem lesions were suggestive of a reovirus hepatitis.