An investigation of urolithiasis in two flocks of laying fowls

Abstract

Urolithiasis and kidney disease as causes of significant mortality in fowls were investigated in two flocks of commercial laying birds on farms where outbreaks had occurred previously. The investigation, covering the first 10-11 months of egg production, included macroscopic and histological examination of individual cases of the disease, biochemical studies on blood samples collected at regular intervals from marked birds and the analysis of feed samples taken at the same time. The aetiology and pathogenesis of the condition was not established and the various investigations carried out did not reveal any consistent features. The possibility of an association between infectious bronchitis virus and the pathological entity described in the paper is discussed.

Renal pathology of the fowl — A review

“…In more recent total mortality surveys on broiler breeder flocks Jones et al (1978) observed kidney lesions in 9.5% of females that died or were killed, while in the small number of males available the incidence was in the region of 1.3%. In a mortality survey on 41 caged layer flocks Randall et al (1977) found primary renal disease in 20% of all dead birds and Blaxland et al (1980) reported that in some laying flocks more than half the deaths were attributable to urolithiasis. Hemsley (1965) studying broiler mortality in 14 flocks and a total of 100,000 birds listed no renal diseases other than three cases of unilateral agenesis.…”

Water deprivation as a cause of renal disease in chickens

“…These birds had swollen pale kidneys containing masses of soft urates and had extensive urate deposits on serous surfaces. Mortality from renal disease continued above normal but at a lower rate for 3 to 5 months and 10 to 15% of the birds which died over this period had urolithiasis similar to the cases described by Blaxland et al (1980). DISCUSSION Siller (1981) refers to several articles on water deprivation and states that the kidneys are undoubtedly severely affected by sustained water deprivation and renal failure may be the immediate cause of death.…”

“…This communication was prompted by the paper on the investigation of urolithiasis in two flocks of laying fowls (Blaxland et at, 1980) in which the authors suggested several possible causes of urolithiasis. Water deprivation was at first suspected as a cause of the mortality but subsequent developments seemed to eliminate this possibility (Blaxland -personal communication).…”

Susceptibility of two commercial single comb white leghorn strains to calcium‐induced urolithiasis: Efficacy of dietary supplementation with dl‐methionine and ammonium sulphate

“…Urolithiasis sporadically causes mortality that is characterised by visceral gout, obstructive urolith (kidney stone) formation, and atrophy of mineralised or obstructed kidney tissue accompanied by compensatory hypertrophy of undamaged kidney tissue (Randall et ai, 1977;Jones et al, 1978;Blaxland et al, 1980;Siller, 1981;Wideman et al, 1983;Mallinson et al, 1984;Cowen et al, 1987a;Brown et al, 1987). Studies based on original observations (Shane et al, 1969) confirmed that urolithiasis can be induced when immature pullets are fed on diets containing more than 30 g/kg calcium and less than 4-5 g/kg available phosphorus Niznik et al, 1985;Wideman and Cowen, 1987;Glahn et al, 1988aGlahn et al, ,b, 1989.…”