Haematological changes in domestic fowl(Gallus gallus)and cranes (Gruiformes) withMycobacterium aviuminfection

Abstract

SUMMARYHaematological findings in 26 domestic fowl and 17 cranes with confirmed Mycobacterium avium infection were compared with normal values from the species concerned. Heterophils and monocytosis occurred frequently in the infected birds; in many cases very large numbers of these cells were present. Haematological findings were related, where possible, to the results of the intradermal tuberculin test and the haemagglutination test. It was concluded that haematological testing has a useful role in both diagnosis and screening for avian TB infections in the species studied.

Diagnostic testing of different stages of avian tuberculosis in naturally infected hens (Gallus domesticus) by the tuberculin skin and rapid agglutination tests, faecal and egg examinations

“…In general our finding agrees with previous reports that have claimed that the RAT is not a reliable method for detecting infected birds, although it has been suggested that the RAT is possibly more sensitive than tuberculin skin tests (Hawkey et al, 1983(Hawkey et al, , 1990Pavlas et al, 1983;Cromie et al, 1991). We confirmed the high sensitivity of the RAT (71.4%) with MAA-p antigen only in heavily infected birds.…”

“…A whole-blood RAT, one having possible diagnostic value for ATBC in fowl has long been described. The method is applied by using whole blood for the identification of birds with a mycobacterial infection (Hawkey et al, 1990;Cromie et al, 1991;Pavlas et al, 1993).…”

Effects of an experimental challenge with Mycobacterium marinum on the blood parameters of Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1757)

“…Barham et al (1980) and Brenden and Huizinga (1986) also showed that infected fishes have more circulating immature erythrocytes than the healthy ones. The decrease in the erythrocytes number and the haematocrit of tilapia inoculated with M. marinum could suggest, as similarly in birds (Hawkey et al, 1990), a tendency to develop hypochromic, microcytic anaemia. Observations made in this study indicated that most of the haematological parameters were altered by the disease.…”

A comparison and evaluation of techniques for diagnosis of avian tuberculosis in wildfowl

“…The high proportion of false negatives given by the blood samples taken into EDTA may imply some sort of calcium dependence in agglutination responses. Haematology has previously been shown to be a useful diagnostic aid in other avian species (Bush et al, 1978;Hawkey et al, 1990;Forbes, 1992). However, the results in this study were disappointing in comparison with the other techniques used.…”

“…Workers have shown that birds suffering from subclinical avian tuberculosis will show a number of haematological changes (Bush et al, 1978;Hawkey et al, 1990;Forbes, 1992). Characteristically this involves a severe leukocytosis, which comprises predominantly a monocytosis, with a concurrent milder heterophilia, hyperfibrinogenaemia, and a microcytic hypochromic anaemia, with a reduced packed cell volume (PCV).…”