Fowl cholera is an important disease of both domesticated and wild birds ( Rimler & Glisson, 1997 ). As noted by Rimler & Glisson ( 1997 ), the disease is often classified into two forms, acute and chronic, despite the fact that field outbreaks often present clinical signs and lesions that are inter- mediate between these two forms. In the classic acute form, death may be the only indication of disease noted ( Rimler & Glisson, 1997). Astute observation of birds in the hours before death can reveal signs such as fever, anorexia, ruffled feath- ers, mouth discharge, diarrhoea and increased respiratory rate. In the chronic form, signs are typically limited to localized infections – swellingtaxa have been described. Table 1 shows the formally recognized species as well as the various un-named taxa that have been recorded as being present in birds. Hence, the identification of a Pasteurella-like isolate from an avian host is a challenging task – the complexity of which is not often appreciated by those who think of the genus Pasteurella as consisting of two to three species.