Avian Pathology

Daniel Shaw, DVM, PhD, DACVP, DACPV

University of Missouri, Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory
P.O. Box 6023, Columbia, MO 65205

Part A

1. Respiratory
2. Avian influenza
Type A influenza virus, family orthomyxoviridae
Very susceptible to detergents, disinfectants and heat
Subtypes: 16 hemagglutinins and 9 neuraminidases give rise to subtype designation (e.g.
H4N6)
No cross-protection between subtypes
3. Pathotype
Designation based on ability to kill SPF chickens
Nonpathogenic—no clinical signs
Lowly pathogenic (LPAI)—mild disease
Highly pathogenic (HPAI)--fowl plague
4. Pathotyping Procedure
Inoculate 8 SPF chickens:
LPAI isolates cause death in 0 to 5 of 8 chickens
HPAI isolates cause death in 6 or more
or
Determination of the amino acid sequence in the hemagglutinin cleavage site
or
Any influenza virus that is not H5 or H7 subtype, which kills 1 to 5 chickens, and grows
in cell culture in the absence of trypsin
5. H5 and H7
All HPAI outbreaks have been due to H5 or H7 viruses
HOWEVER, most H5 and H7 isolates are low path viruses
6. Photograph of turkeys in barn infected with LPAI.
7. Infraorbital sinusitis in turkey
8. Convulsing turkey
9. LPAI in Ducks:
Don’t usually get sick. They can excrete a lot of virus while infected.
10. Lesions of LPAI: Mild to moderate inflammation of the trachea, sinuses, air sacs and
conjunctiva. In laying birds there often is ovarian atresia and involution of the oviduct.
Secondary bacterial infections (often E. coli) are common.
11. Mucus in pharynx of turkey with LPAI.
12. Airsacculitis/pericarditis: Fibrinous exudate in air sacs, pericardial sac, or abdominal
area.
13-15. Photographs of chickens and turkeys with HPAI.
16. Lesions of HPAI: Fibrinous exudate in the trachea, air sacs, oviduct, pericardial sac,
or the abdominal area
Necrosis in the skin, comb, wattles, liver, kidney, spleen, or lungs
Vesicles and ulceration on the combs
Cyanosis and edema of the head
Edema of the feet, blotchy red discoloration of the shanks
Petechiae in the abdominal fat and mucosal and serosal surfaces
Necrosis or hemorrhage in the gizzard and proventriculus.
17. Vesicles and ulcerations on the comb
18. Edema of the feet and subcutaneous hemorrhages of the shanks
19. Fibrinous tracheitis
20. Suppurative airsacculitis (abdominal air sac)
21. Multifocal hemorrhage in proventriculus and ventriculus (gizzard) (lesions of both
HPAI and Exotic Newcastle disease)
22. Multifocal hemorrhages in intestines (lesions of both HPAI and Exotic Newcastle
disease)
23. Diagnosis:
Confirmation requires virus detection and serology:
Isolation in chick embryos
Antigen-capture ELISA
PCR assay
Agar-gel precipitation test: identify type A internal antigen or detect antibody
Pathotyping of the virus
24. Newcastle Disease (ND)
RNA virus genus Rubulavirus Paramyxoviridae family
Acute, rapidly-spreading, contagious disease of birds of all ages
Causes minor to severe mortality in susceptible flocks
25. Pathotype
Classified according pathogenicity for chickens
Velogenic strains: severe disease and high mortality
Mesogenic strains: respiratory disease or marked drop in egg production with less
mortality
Lentogenic strains: mild respiratory disease and declines in egg production; commonly
used as vaccines
26. Lesions
Lentogenic: mild tracheitis may be seen in early cases
Mesogenic: fluid in the nasal passages, larynx, and trachea; hemorrhages in
proventriculus and small intestines
Velogenic: congestion and hemorrhages in proventriculus, ceca, and intestines; if in lay
may have egg yolk in the body cavity
27. Conjunctivitis
28. Serous airsacculitis
29. Abdominal airsacculitis due to rupture egg yolks (“egg yolk peritonitis”)
30. sick chickens with END infection (Velogenic Newcastle Disease)
31. Dead chickens from velognic ND infections
32. Multifocal hemorrhage in proventriculus and ventriculus (gizzard) (lesions of both
HPAI and Exotic Newcastle disease)
33. Multifocal hemorrhages in intestines (lesions of both HPAI and Exotic Newcastle
disease)
34. Acute hemorrhage in cecal tonsils
35. Diagnosis:
Virus isolation, identification and pathotyping -tissues
-Swabs ( trachea, cloaca, and brain)
Serology
Velogenic Viserotropic ND (Exotic ND) is reportable
36. Infectious Bronchitis (IBV)
Acute, contagious disease of chickens
Caused by a coronavirus (RNA)
Affects mainly the respiratory system but can also affect the kidneys and reproductive
tract
Several serotypes
Delicate virus easily killed by disinfectants
37. Clinical Signs and lesions of IBV
Incubation period is 18-36 hours
Respiratory signs mild in adults
May be severe in chicks
Sneezing, gasping, coughing, nasal discharge, sinusitis
Secondary bacterial infections may occur
Nephrotropic strains cause high mortality rates due to nephritis in young flocks
Poor shell and interior egg quality
38. Gasping chick
39. Bronchial plug (fibrinonecrotic bronchitis)
40. Nephrosis
41. Nephrosis
42. Visceral gout
43. Atresia of oviduct
44. Wrinkled egg shells
45. Poor quality of albumin
46. Infectious laryngotracheitis (ILT)
Caused by a herpesvirus.
Chickens, pheasants, peafowl of any age.
Bloody mucoid to caseous exudate in proximal trachea.
Infects ciliated epithelium of trachea producing intranuclear inclusions.
47. ILT—Gasping chicken
48. Fibrinonecrotic tracheitis
49. Hemorrhagic tracheitis
50. Intranuclear inclusions and syncytia
51. Intranuclear inclusions and syncytia
52. Gapeworms (Syngamus trachea)
Gapeworms (Syngamus trachea)--carried by earthworms; more severe in young birds.
53.54. Verminous tracheitis
55. Gapeworms (Syngamus trachea) in petri dish
56. Fowl cholera
Caused by Pasteurella multocida (Gram-negative bacterium)
Septicemia and/or severe pneumonia
Chicken, turkeys, and other species
Usually over 10 weeks of age
Spread in water
Carried by mammals such as raccoons, opossums, etc.
57. Fowl cholera: Death losses may be high, especially in turkeys.
58. Fowl Cholera
Flock depressed and off feed
May find dead birds with few gross changes
59. Acute septicemia results in acute multifocal necrotizing hepatitis
60. Severe acute suppurative pneumonia and pleuritis
61. Aspergillosis
Aspergillus fumigatus or A. flavus. (fungus)
Causes formation of caseous plugs in bronchi and plaques in air sacs which may have
greenish areas.
Diagnose by identifying typical fruiting bodies microscopically in crush or smear
preparations, detection in section, or by culture.
62.63. Suppurative airsacculitis
64-66. Mycotic bronchitis and airsacculitis
67. Aspergillus sp. fruiting bodies in lactophenol aniline blue stained smear
68. Multifocal granulomatous pneumonia and airsacculitis
69-70. Fruiting bodies and hyphae in GMS-stained sections
71. Chicken Coryza
Haemophilus paragallinarum
Mortality often low, morbidity up to 100%
Dramatic drop in feed consumption
Drop in egg production
72. Lesions of Chicken Coryza
Swollen mucus-filled sinuses
Crusted swollen eyelids
Swollen face and wattles
Reddened trachea with mucus and hemorrhagic exudate
May have hemorrhages in internal organs
73.75. Ocular discharge and swelling of infraorbital sinuses
76. Mucopurulent rhinitis and sinusitis
77. Catarrhal rhinitis and sinusitis; conjunctivitis; hemorrhagic tracheitis
78. Petechiae on epicardial fat and ecchymotic hemorrhages on epicardium; petechiae on
mucosa of proventriculus
79. Turkey Coryza
Bordetella avium Rhinotracheitis (BART)
Highly contagious
Discharge from eyes and nose, sneezing, labored breathing, head swelling, stunting
80.82. Mucopurulent sinusitis in turkey poults

Part B
1. Digestive
2. Coccidiosis
Can cause severe enteritis in any age of naive birds.
Severe losses may occur in chickens.
3. Requires warmth and moisture—6-8 day life cycle
Pasting of vents
Blood in feces
Thickened and hemorrhagic wall of intestine
Intestinal cores
4. Diagram from Diseases of Poultry, 9th Ed.
5. E. acervulina--Multiple tan-white foci in duodenum (multifocal duodenitis)
6-8. E. necatrix--Multifocal hemorrhagic enteritis
9-10. Eimeria tenella—Hemorrhagic typhlitis
11. Photomicrograph: E. necatrix—Enteritis; Macrogametes in crypts in middle small
intestine
12. Photomicrograph: Eimeria sp. in Chicken
13. Smear showing coccidia oocysts
14. Hemorrhagic Enteritis (HE)
Adenovirus group 1 infection of turkeys
Hemorrhagic material in small intestine
Dark tarry material in ceca
Pale spots on capsular and cut surfaces of spleen
Intranuclear inclusions in stem cells of spleen and
in tubular epithelium of kidneys
EM, IHC
Marble spleen disease virus antigenically related.
15.17. Hemorrhagic enteritis in 7-week-old turkey
18.19. Multifocal hemorrhagic splenitis in 7-week-old turkeys
20. Blackhead (histomoniasis)
Caused by the protozoan Histomonas meleagridis
Necrotizing typhlitis (caseous cecal cores) and multifocal necrotizing hepatitis (round
pale foci on liver)
Carried by cecal worm which is harbored by earthworms
21. Necrotizing typhlitis and multifocal necrotizing hepatitis
22. Multifocal necrotizing hepatitis
23. Necrotizing typhlitis
24. Candidiasis (Crop Mycosis)
Candida albicans
Listlessness, inappetence, ruffled feathers
C. albicans is found in the environment and in the normal gastrointestinal tract of birds.
Overgrowth occurs with poor hygiene and following antibiotic therapy
Detect in scrapings, histopathology, culture
25.26. Fibrinonecrotic ingluvitis
27. Candida sp. in smear
28. Trichomoniasis
Trichomonas gallinae
Also known as canker or frounce
Pigeons, raptors, caged birds, other birds less often
Affects the upper digestive tract:
29-31. Necrotizing stomatitis, pharyngitis, and esophagitis
32. Avian Tuberculosis
Caused by Mycobacterium avium
Emaciation
Granulomas intestines and other internal organs
Usually in older stock on dirt
33. Avian Tuberculosis: Conjunctivitis
34. Avian Tuberculosis: Muscular atrophy due to emaciation
35. Avian Tuberculosis: Multifocal granulomatous hepatitis
36. Fatty Liver Syndrome
Associated with excessive caloric intake
Pale friable swollen liver
Hepatocelluar vacuolation
37.38. Hepatic lipidosis with rupture and hemorrhage
39. Capillaria Sp.
Causes unthriftiness if heavy infestation
Direct transmission
Carried by earthworms or copepods
Upper digestive tract and intestine
Scrapings, fecal smears, histopath
Not prolific egg layers
40. Capillaria Sp.: Atrophy of breast muscle in a quail
41. Capillaria Sp.: Fibrinonecrotic ingluvitis and esophagitis
42. Photomicrograph: Normal crop mucosa
43-44. Photomicrograph: Verminous ingluvitis
45. Capillaria sp. dissected from mucosa
46. Capillaria sp. with eggs in smear
47. Ulcerative Enteritis
Caused by Clostridium sp.
Often initiated by some other disease such as coccidiosis
In many different species
48. Multifocal ulceration in intestine visible through the serosa
49. Integumentary
50. Fowl Pox
DNA virus—durable in environment
Need abrasions for viral entry
Carried by mosquitoes
Any age of naïve birds
Dry form—on skin
Wet Form—mucus membranes of upper GI
51. Fowl pox—Dry Form
Raised scabby areas on bare skin (proliferative dermatitis).
Mortality may be slightly increased and egg production can drop by 10%.
52. Proliferative dermatitis
53. Proliferative dermatitis, glossitis, stomatitis, and pharyngitis
54. Photomicrograph of lesion showing ballooning of epithelial cells and cytoplasmic
inclusions
55. In larynx, mouth, or esophagus; thick caseous plaques may occlude the larynx and
cause high mortality.
56. Photomicrograph: Proliferative laryngitis—Ballooning of epithelial cells and
cytoplasmic inclusions
57. Exudative Diathesis
Vitamin E/selenium deficiency
Subcutaneous edema over ventrum
58. Dermatophytosis (Favus)
59. Scaly Face Mite
60. Hematolymphopoietic
61. Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD, Gomboro disease)
Caused by birnavirus (RNA).
Durable virus.
Causes problems in young chickens.
Swelling and hemorrhage in bursa of Fabricius.
Necrosis of lymphoid tissue leads to immunosuppression.
Permanent if before 2 weeks of age
Transient if over 2 weeks of age
62. Multifocal hemorrhages in bursa; fibrinonecrotic inflammation in bursa; Edematous
bursae
63. Gangrenous Dermatitis
64. Marble Spleen Disease (MSD)
Acute disease of young adult pheasants
(11 to 35 weeks of age)
Adenovirus passed in feces
Immunosuppressive
Find previously healthy birds dead
May be associated with physiologically stressful event
Mortality rate is variable
65. MSD Lesions
Good body condition
Mottled spleens, may be swollen or shrunken
66. Multifocal necrotizing Splenitis in young pheasant hens
67. Intranuclear inclusion in lymphoid foliclaes of spleen
68. Musculoskeletal
69. Nutrition Deficiencies
Commonly due to errors in feed formulation or manufacture:
Diet wholly inadequate for growing poultry
(e.g. cracked corn)
Diet is balanced but too much scratch grain is also fed and is eaten preferentially
Diet is balanced but has been stored too long and nutrients have been destroyed by
oxidation
A balanced ration was formulated but the feed was mixed incorrectly
70. Perosis
Slipped tendon
Deficiency in Manganese, Choline, or other B vitamins
Inability to bear weight on affected leg
Diagnosis: Physical exam or necropsy to detect slipped tendon
71. Chicks unable to stand due to perosis
72. Dissection showing tibiotarsal joints and displaced tendon on one side.
73. Rickets
Deficiency of calcium, phosphorus, Vitamin D or imbalance in Ca/P ratio
Enlarged joints and reluctance or inability to stand
Find soft bones on necropsy
74-75. Soft bones in young chick with rickets
76. Swollen tibiotarsal joints and deformed tibias in chick with rickets
77. Diagram of Normal Growth Plate
78. Ricketic growth plate vs. normal growth plate in proximal tibias
79. Calcium Depletion in Layers (Caged layer fatigue)
When hens lay an egg every day they need:
-100 mg calcium per hour to get 2 grams
-that equals consumption of 4 grams, or
-4% of daily intake of 100 grams of feed and
particle size that maintains itself in the gut
When they don’t get it:
-deficit comes from bones and blood or
- calcium output reduced (egg quality or nos.)
On a flock basis all these things happen: egg numbers decline, egg shell quality declines
and hens are found unable to stand.
80. Immediate effect:
Photograph of a hen with low blood calcium, unable to stand
81. Curved keel bone (sternum) in a hen with soft bones
Osteomalacia (excessive osteoid) vs. osteoperosis (loss of bone mass)
82. Fractured keel bone tip in a hen with soft bones
83. Enlarged costochondral junctions in laying hen
84. Shell-less Egg
85. Rickets
86. Tibiodyschondroplasia in male turkey (normal on left, affected on right)
87-88. Suppurative osteomyelitis—E. coli, Actinomyces pyogenes

Part C
1. Neoplasia
2. Leukosis Complex
Chickens
Tumors in any internal organ.
Marek's disease—herpesvirus (DNA)
Lymphoid leukosis—retrovirus (RNA)
3-10. Tumors (Leukosis) in multiple organs of chickens
11. Marek's Disease
Herpesvirus shed from feather follicles in dander
Peripheral and CNS
All ages affected
Horizontal transmission
12. “Gray eye” due to infiltration of iris by neoplastic lymphocytes
13. Swollen sciatic nerve (on left; normal on right) due to infiltration by neoplastic
lymphocytes
14. Lymphoid Leukosis
Family Retroviridae
Tumors in bursa are common
Rarely in nerves
Seen in sexually mature birds
Egg transmitted
15. Carcinomatosis
16. Nervous
17. Encephalomalacia
Deficiency in Vitamin E
Affected birds may be ataxic or in final stages paralysis is possible
Hemorrhage and swelling in cerebellum
18. Photograph of chicken with neurological signs due to encephalomalacia
19. Hemorrhagic encephalomalacia in cerebellum
20-21. Multifocal hemorrhages in brain of bird of prey with West Nile Virus infection
22. IHC of West Nile Virus infection in brain
23. Suppurative meningitis (bacterial)
24. Multifocal Suppurative and Necrotizing Encephalitis (Mycotic)
25. Urogenital
26. Nephrosis and visceral gout in a pet bird
27. Urolithiasis
Acquired degenerative kidney disease
Affects pullets and laying hens
Focal mineralization of the kidneys
Uroliths block the ureter
Atrophy “upstream” of the uroliths
Unobstructed kidney tissue undergoes compensatory hypertrophy
Kidney asymmetry is characteristic of damage leading to urolithiasis
28-31. Urolithiasis, nephrosis, and visceral gout
32. Suppurative salpingitis
33. Impacted oviduct in Buff Orpington chicken hen
34. Retained right oviduct in leghorn hens
35. Body as a Whole
36. Riemerella anatipestifer
Ducks, geese, turkeys, other domestic and wild birds
New duck disease, duck septicemia, goose influenza
Fibrinous pericarditis, perihepatitis, airsacculitis, caseous salpingitis, meningitis
37. Turkey infected with Riemerella anatipestifer showing neurological signs
38-40. Suppurative pericarditis, perihepatitis, and airsacculitis
41. Suppurative pericarditis
42. Colisepticemia and Airsacculitis (Colibacillosis)
Caused by E. coli.
Usually secondary infection.
Enters via the respiratory tract.
Septicemia and airsacculitis.
43. Airsacculitis
44. Airsacculitis, perihepatitis, and pericarditis
45. Airsacculitis and pericarditis
46. Egg Yolk Peritonitis
47. Egg Yolk Peritonitis
48. Erysipelas
Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae
Depression and death
Infected birds shed the bacterium which can survive in the soil for years
Enlarged liver and swollen spleen
Bacterial cultures are diagnostic
49. Cellulitis of snood of turkey
50-51. Hepatomegaly due to Erysipelas
52. Salmonellosis
Salmonella spp.
Depression and high mortality most commonly in young poultry
Vertical transmission for S. pullorum S. gallinarum (group D) and S. enteritidis (group
D).
Horizontal transmission for “paratyphoids”
Omphalitis, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, and typhlitis.
Bacterial culture
53. Salmonellosis: Suppurative pericarditis
54. Salmonellosis: Multifocal coalescing myocarditis
55. Salmonellosis: Multifocal necrotizing hepatitis
56-57. Salmonellosis: Necrotizing typhlitis
58. Psittacosis
Pet birds
Chlamydophila psittaci
Turkeys—ornithosis
Can be in many other species of birds
Conjunctivitis, hepatomegaly, airsacculitis, pneumonia
Detect in smears, PCR assay, cell culture, ELISA
59-60. Psittacosis: hepatomegaly
61-62. Psittacosis: airsacculitis and hepatomegaly
63. Chlamydophila psittaci in smear
64. Cardiovascular
65. Ruptured aorta in tom turkey
Acute hemorrhage into caudal thoracic air sac
66. Round heart in 3-week-old turkey poult
67. Right Sided Heart Failure (congestive cardiomyopathy)
68. Valvular endocarditis
69. Bacterial Myocarditis: Multifocal coalescing myocarditis
70. Ascites Syndrome
Rapidly growing broiler chickens and tom turkeys.
Associated with chilling, excessive salt in the ration, high altitude.
Genetic disease of the broiler chicken.
71. Ascites