Veterinary Services

Garden bird salmonellosis caused the deaths of greenfinches (Carduelis chloris), chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), siskins (Carduelis spinus), house sparrows (Passer domesticus), a goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) and a dunnock (Prunella modularis). All isolates were Salmonella Typhimurium phage types 40 or 56 variant. Post mortem lesions included necrotic foci in the liver, spleen and oesophagus, and a purulent shoulder joint arthritis. A necrotic oesophagitis in a different chaffinch was probably the result of a Trichomonas species infection, and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis was isolated from another chaffinch with arthritis.

Pigeon paramyxovirus I was isolated from the tissues of a feral pigeon (Columba livia) found dead, and pigeon pox was confirmed in a woodpigeon (Columba palumbus) with proliferative lesions on the mandibles and in the oropharynx, and with pale nodules in the liver. Two thin immature male buzzards (Buteo buteo) found dead in different locations had heavy burdens of the intestinal roundworm Porrocaecum species. Mycotic airsacculitis caused the death of a mute swan (Cygnus olor) and lead poisoning was diagnosed in a whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus) with an impacted proventriculus. A combination of necrotic enteritis associated with Clostridium perfringens and a granulomatous proventriculitis caused by the nematode Echinuria (Acuaria) uncinata was responsible for the death of an immature mute swan.