Cryptosporidiosis in quails

Abstract

SUMMARYCryptosporidial infection was diagnosed in a flock of 4-week-old common quails (Corturnix cortunix). The main gross pathological changes were excess mucus in the trachea, nasal mucosal congestion and shrunken bursa of Fabricius (Bursa cloacalis). Microscopically, the main changes were epithelial deciliation and hyperplasia and inflammatory cell infiltration of the lamina propria in the trachea, bronchi and nasal cavity; epithelial hyperplasia in some oesophageal and salivary glands, and epithelial hyperplasia and follicular atrophy in the bursa. Protozoan parasites attached to the affected epithelium were identified by electron microscopy as Cryptosporidium spp. INTRODUCTIONCryptosporidium species (of suborder Eimeriorina and family Cryptosporidiidae) are coccidian parasites associated with the microvillus border of the host epithelial cells. These parasites are known to infect reptiles (Anderson et al, 1968;Brownstein et al.,

Cryptosporidiosis in birds ‐ A review

“…Cryptosporidium infection is usually accompanied by respiratory, ocular or other signs of disease. Increased morbidity and mortality, depression, lethargy, anorexia, failure to gain body weight properly, coughing, sneezing, gurgling and dyspnoea are common (Hoerr et al, 1978;Mason and Hartley, 1980;Dhillon et al, 1981;Tham et al, 1982;Itakura et al, 1984;Whittington and Wilson, 1985;Current et al, 1986;Mason, 1986;Ranck and Hoerr, 1987;. In only one paper has the author stated that Cryptosporidium spp-infected birds were clinically normal (Randall, 1982).…”

“…Cryptosporidium has been reported in chickens (Tyzzer, 1929;Fletcher and Munnell, 1975;Dhillon et al, 1981;Randall, 1982;Itakura et al, 1984;Gorham et al, 1987;Goodwin, 1988b;Goodwin and Brown, 1988a, b), a duck (Mason, 1986), a black-throated finch (Gardiner and Grimes, 1984), a domestic goose (Proctor and Kemp, 1974), a jungle fowl (Randall, 1986b), redlored parrots (Doster et al, 1979), a parakeet (Goodwin, 1988a), peacocks (Mason and Hartley, 1980), pheasants (Whittington and Wilson, 1985;Randall, 1986a), quail (Tham et al, 1982;Hoerr et al, 1986;Ritter et al, 1986;Guy etal, 1987) and turkeys (Slavin, 1955;Hoerr etal, 1978;Glisson et al, 1984;Tarwid et al, 1985;Ranck and Hoerr, 1987; from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. There is no published information on the incidence and distribution of Oyptosporidium in bird hosts other than domestic poultry.…”

“…Cryptosporidium can infect the nasal tubinates, nasopharynx, sinuses, larynx, trachea, lungs, air sacs and palpebral conjunctiva in chickens, duck, turkeys, peacocks, pheasants, quail and jungle fowl (Hoerr et al, 1978;Mason and Hartley, 1980;Dhillon et al, 1982;Randall, 1982;Tham et al, 1982;Glissons/., 1984;Itakura et al, 1984;Tarwid et al, 1985;Whittington and Wilson, 1985;Current et al, 1986;Mason, 1986;Randall, 1986a, b;Ranck and Hoerr, 1987; (Table 4). Cryptosporidium infection is usually accompanied by respiratory, ocular or other signs of disease.…”

Cryptosporidia in the bursa of Fabricius – a correlation with mortality rates in broiler chickens1

“…In immune deficient mammals, the disease may be life threatening and there is no effective therapy (Current, 1986). In birds, cryptosporidial infections have been reported in both the respiratory tract and the bursa of Fabricius (Itakura et al, 1984;Randall, 1982;Mason and Hartley, 1980;Tham et al, 1982;Fletcher et al, 1975). In infected birds, there may be no clinical signs or respiratory disease.…”

“…Although there are numerous reports of cryptosporidial infections in several avian species, many are isolated case reports (Itakura et al, 1984;Mason and Hartley, 1980;Tham et al, 1982) or descriptions of the ultrastructure morphology (Itakura et al, 1985). There are few reports on the prevalence and significance of infections with cryptosporidia in commercially raised poultry.…”