Oral infection of turkeys with in vitro cultured Histomonas meleagridis results in high mortality

Dieter Liebhart (1) , Michael Hess (1)

1 Department for Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health

In the present study a well defined clonal culture of Histomonas meleagridis was used to investigate whether turkeys can be infected orally with in vitro propagated parasites in the absence of any vector. Therefore, two subsequent experiments were arranged to study the morbidity and mortality of a virulent strain of histomonads in turkeys following crop installation of protozoa and a feed restriction for 5 hours. Soon after infection, the parasites triggered total morbidity and mortality in a group of 14 turkeys of which 10 birds were orally infected and the others were kept as in-contact birds. Administration of the same number of histomonads into either the cloaca or the crop of individually housed birds was investigated subsequently, to avoid any bird to bird transmission. All 8 cloacally and 6 out of 8 orally infected turkeys contracted severe histomonosis with only 2 birds surviving the infection expressing no clinical signs. During pathological investigations all birds showed pathognomonic lesions in livers and caeca indicative for histomonosis, except the 2 turkeys which survived the infection. The results of the experiments verify for the first time the effective oral infection of day-old turkeys with clonal in vitro cultured Histomonas meleagridis.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Dieter Liebhart, Michael Hess. Oral infection of turkeys with in vitro cultured Histomonas meleagridis results in high mortality. Avian Pathology, 2009, 38 (03), pp.223-227. ⟨10.1080/03079450902912192⟩. ⟨hal-00540154⟩