Veterinary Services

Game birds

Common causes of mortality in young game birds in the first two weeks of life included non-starters and rotavirus infection. An untypable strain of Salmonella Typhimurium was isolated from red-legged partridges aged eight days in which mortality had reached 10%.

Infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa resulted in increased mortality in a batch of pheasants aged 10 days. A second batch of chicks showed torticollis and discharges from the external auditory meatus and P aeruginosa was again isolated, from ear swabs and internal organs. Infection with this organism is often associated with contaminated water.

Coccidiosis was diagnosed in several batches of pheasants and partridges, often presenting as vague malaise and variation in size rather than significant mortality. However coccidiosis was considered to be the cause of high mortality in red grouse chicks aged 4 weeks – eight birds from the hatch of eleven had died.

Spironucleosis (hexamitosis) resulted in weight loss, diarrhoea and death in pheasants from the age of five weeks.

Wild birds

The commonest infectious diseases diagnosed in wild birds were E coli O86 infection and presumed trichomoniasis. The former condition was found in siskins (Carduelis spinus), chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) and a goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) – on one site nine dead birds (siskins and chaffinches) were found on a single day. Presumed trichomoniasis causing thickening and necrosis of the oesophagus was found in greenfinches (Carduelis chloris) and chaffinches