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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. |
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