Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum (SG) causes fowl typhoid (FT), a disease responsible for economic losses to the poultry industry worldwide. Experimental investigation of clinico-pathological lesions associated with experimental infection of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum in cockerels was evaluated base on clinical signs, haematological examination, serum biochemical assessment, gross and histological examination of the effect caused on the birds. Twenty cockerels were used after raring them from day old to four weeks before infection. Ten were subjected to the salmonella infection while other ten were used as control. This study revealed the severity of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum infection against multiple organs lesions to the birds which cause mortality as observed in the study after 5 days of infection with clinical signs of weakness, ruffled feathers, inappetence, difficulty in breathing, reluctance to move, loss of weight, increase temperature,watery and yellowish diarrhea. The haematology result indicates anemia, leucocytopenia, heterophilia and lymphocytopenia while the serum biochemical results showed that alanine transferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were statistically significant (P < 0.05), while aspartate aminotransferase (ASP), total protein (TP) and urea (U) were statistically insignificant (P > 0.05) in the infected group. The gross lesions observed include: pale carcasses, severely congested lungs, and whitish nodular lesions on the heart, haemorrhagic enteritis, and bloody intestinal content, bronze colouration of the liver, swollen kidney and enlarge spleen (splenomegaly). The histopathological lesions revealed neuronal necrosis, necrosis of the myocardium, sloughing of the intestinal villi, severe necrosis of the renal tubules, thickening of alveolar septae and bronchiolar epithelial lining, necrosis of the hepatocytes and congestion and splenic lymphocytic depletion. These findings showed the severity of Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Gallinarum on the organs of the cockerel birds (young birds) just as it does in adult birds.
Salmonella organisms are widely distributed in nature and survive well in a variety of food and contamination and can occur at multiple steps along the food chain. The study was conducted at the Central Diagnostic Laboratory of the National Veterinary Research Institute (N.V.R.I) located in Vom Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State Nigeria. Information was obtained via postmortem records and laboratory results that isolated Salmonella species were retrieved and analyzed retrospectively in the study area for five years. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data while tables were used for result proportions presented in percentages. A total of 2512 cases of poultry diseases were documented for a period of five years from 2015 to 2019 with an average of 502.4 cases annually. A total of 436 of salmonellosis was documented during the period under review and an average of 87.2 cases annually. 24.4% prevalence was recorded in 2018 and 12.4% in 2015. 2019 had the highest prevalence of 28.4 with an average avian salmonellosis prevalence of 19%. 24.6% avian salmonellosis was recorded in the age bracket of 5 to 8 weeks, 29.5% was documented in the age bracket of 9 to 12 weeks which was the second highest and 33.3% in the age bracket of 0 to 4 which was the highest. Avian salmonellosis affects all types of birds. Out of 436 positive avian salmonellosis cases recorded in the period under review, 251 were layers while 156 were broilers with 29 being local birds and cockerels. This study does explicitly indicate that avian salmonellosis is highly prevalence in the study area and this could play a great role in lowering poultry productivity in the study area, thereby highlighting the need for effective health programs like good biosecurity practices and vaccination in order to boost poultry production.
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