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A Pasteurella or Pasteurella-Like Organism as the Cause of an Infectious Sinusitis of Turkeys*
Research Notes FEATHER YIELDS IN TURKEYS total feathers. Similar values were found for young males. In a small group of well finished old male turkeys of various varieties the dressing loss expressed as percent of live weight (23.8 pounds) was 8<76 + 0.86 percent. Of this 4.16 + 0.86 percent was accounted for by blood and 4.58 + 0.68 percent by feathers. x
JOHN C. HAMMOND
Bureau of Animal Industry Beltsville Research Center Beltsville, Maryland Received for publication February 19, 1944.
A PASTEURELLA OR PASTEURELLA-LIKE ORGANISM AS THE CAUSE OF AN INFECTIOUS SINUSITIS OF TURKEYS* Infectious sinusitis has been described by Hinshaw (1943) so well that a further description of the disease would not seem to be warranted. Neither is it desired to give the impression that all cases of infectious sinusitis arise as the result of the organism herein described. Hinshaw cites the results of his own work and that of others concerning the transmissibility of the disease and the failure to determine anything definite regarding the nature of the causative agent, but calls attention to a pleomorphic Gram-negative organism consistently isolated from sinusitis exudate. Recently studies to determine something of the nature of the causative agent of infectious sinusitis of turkeys were undertaken at this station. * Approved as Technical contribution No. 845 from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, by Mr. A. B. Conner, Director, and Mr. G. B. Winstead, Director of Information and College Publications.
EXPERIMENTAL
The exudate from field cases of sinusitis in turkeys was shown to be capable of producing a characteristic infection in chickens when such exudate was swabbed into their nasal cavities. The infection in chickens was characterized by nasal discharge and distention of the nasal chambers with caseous material. The exudate taken from the experimentally infected chickens was capable of producing a typical sinusitis in turkeys. In cultural studies of sinusitis material an organism was recovered which produces gas when grown in meat mash media or in blood at the base of agar slants. The cultured organism produced the disease in the chicken and material from the chicken thus infected produced sinusitis in turkeys. Mice inoculated with the cultures failed to show signs of illness even after two weeks, but if such mice were destroyed 48 hours after inoculation the organism could be readily isolated
[247]
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
The use of turkey feathers for lining clothing and for insulating material has caused some interest in the yields of feathers that may be expected from turkeys. Records were kept of the live weight, -weight of blood, body feathers, and quill feathers of Beltsville Small White turkeys dressed at 28 weeks of age. In a group of 30 females the dressing loss expressed as percent of live weight (9.0 pounds) was 10.03 ±0.85 percent. Of this the blood accounted for 3.10 + 0.50 percent and the feathers for 6.93 + 0.80 percent. Quill feathers made up 26.23 + 3.12 percent of
248
RESEARCH NOTES
CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
The organism causing turkey sinusitis is a pleomorphic Gram-negative rod. In blood cultures small coccoid rods or filaments may be observed. Those observed in meat mash media are predominantly rod shaped, whereas those on agar slants or in broth media are characterized by
long filaments, large rounded forms, short rods and chains of short rods. Gas is produced in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media with freshly isolated cultures. The colonies on agar slants are small, rounded, flat and white to bluish-white in appearance. In broth diffuse clouding is noted, later a flocculent precipitate is formed. There is no visible growth on potato, litmus milk is unchanged, no H2S nor indol is produced, nitrates are reduced to nitrites and the methyl red test is negative. Blood at the base of agar slants is hemolyzed. Two strains studied extensively fermented dextrose, sucrose, mannose, dulcitol, rhamnose, sorbitol, galactose, leyulose, trehalose, mannitol, inulin, raffinose, and dextrin, with acid but no gas, and failed to ferment lactose, maltose, xylose, salicin and esculin. The organism would seem to differ from fowl cholera strains because the latter, according to Merchant (1942) does not ferment rhamnose, trehalose, inulin, raffinose, and dextrin. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY
Exudate from infectious sinusitis of turkeys was infectious for chickens when inoculated intranasally and material from these chickens would in turn infect turkeys. The infectious sinusitis from which the exudate was obtained was found on three widely separated farms in Texas. The organism, when injected into mice, could be recovered in cultures and used to infect chickens, and material from the chickens would in turn infect turkeys with typical sinusitis. The organism produced gas in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media on primary isolation. Further study indicated that its physiological properties were such that it probably belongs in the genus pasteurella. According to Bergey (1939) none of the pasteurella group produce gas but an or-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
from the liver by placing small particles of the liver tissue into the culture media. The cultures recovered from mice were also capable of inciting infection in chickens and material from these infected chickens in turn would incite a sinusitis in the turkey. For a time we labored under the impression that we were dealing with an organism, which we previously had isolated from chickens showing caseous distentions of the nasal passages, commonly referred to as "roup," and which has been tentatively identified as Actinomyces necrophorus (unpublished data). Filaments were observed in the exudates and cultures of both infections. Both organisms produce filaments in cultures of meat mash media and blood at the base of agar slants. Actinomyces necrophorus does not colonize on the surface of agar while the organism producing sinusitis in turkeys does. Rabbits inoculated intravenously with freshly isolated turkey sinusitis cultures failed to show any symptoms of infection and no attempts were made to recover the organism from them. The use of 0.75 to 1.0 gram of sulfathiazole morning and night to treat mature turkeys affected with sinusitis under field conditions, has resulted in recovery of those showing no caseous accumulations in the sinuses. Those showing lower respiratory involvement without sinusitis also responded to treatment. Experimentally controlled studies have not thus far been undertaken.
RESEARCH NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author is deeply indebted to Doctors H. Schmidt and R. D. Turk of the
Division of Veterinary Science, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, for their interest in the work and assistance in assembling the information for publication. JOHN P. DELAPLANE Division of Veterinary Science A. & M. College of Texas College Station, Texas Received for publication February 24, 1944. REFERENCES
Hinshaw, W. R. 1943. Infectious sinusitis. Diseases of poultry, Iowa State College Press, 1943, pp. 921-924. Merchant, I. A. 1942. Veterinary Bacteriology. Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, p. 365. Bergey, 1939. Manual of determinative bacteriology. Fifth Edition. Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland, pp. 290-291.
ORAL ADMINISTRATION OF ESTROGENS IN POULTRY The fat content of the body of female chickens increases rapidly at the onset of lay (Hainan and Cruickshank, 1933). The researches of Zondek and Max (1939), Lorenz (1938 and 1943) and Flock and Bollman (1942) demonstrate that this rapid fattening may be artificially induced by subcutaneous injection and implantation of estrogens in male chickens. Many investigators have shown that diethylstilbestrol has a strong estrogenic potency when administered by mouth in mammals. No reports of feeding estrogens to chickens have been found in the literature. Practical usage of estrogens in fattening broiler chickens would be greatly expedited if an inexpensive form could be found which would be effective when mixed in the feed. The tests for oral estrogenic potency used in this study (Table 1) are the increase in oviduct weight, the decrease in comb weight of males and the feather form in the saddle region. Daily administration of 0.5mg. die'thyl-
stilbestrol tablets was tested in lot I. The estrogenic potency was found to be very low. When diethylstilbestrol was fed at the rate of 23 mg. per pound of feed, lots II and III, a distinct estrogenic effect on the oviduct was observed when starting with both day-old and eight-week old chickens. Observations on the dressed chickens from lot III would indicate that the estrogenic potency was insufficient for practical use in fattening. Doses of diethylstilbestrol of over 100 mg. per chicken are much too costly for commercial use at the present market prices of this hormone. Ethinyl estradiol was tested in lot II because the manufacturers have found it to be very potent when orally administered to mammals, particularly man. In this test it has proved to have a stronger estrogenic effect when fed to chickens and might be suitable if costs of manufacture could be lowered equivalent to that of diethylstilbestrol.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
ganism was recently isolated by the author from cases of typical chronic fowl cholera which produced gas in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media. It is possible that other freshly isolated strains of the fowl cholera organism also produce gas in meat mash media and blood at the base of agar slants. Such gas production may have been overlooked since these media are not routinely used in studies of the physiological characteristics of this organism. Sulfathiazole has apparently been of some value under field conditions in hastening the recovery of affected birds.
249
JOHN C. HAMMOND
Bureau of Animal Industry Beltsville Research Center Beltsville, Maryland Received for publication February 19, 1944.
A PASTEURELLA OR PASTEURELLA-LIKE ORGANISM AS THE CAUSE OF AN INFECTIOUS SINUSITIS OF TURKEYS* Infectious sinusitis has been described by Hinshaw (1943) so well that a further description of the disease would not seem to be warranted. Neither is it desired to give the impression that all cases of infectious sinusitis arise as the result of the organism herein described. Hinshaw cites the results of his own work and that of others concerning the transmissibility of the disease and the failure to determine anything definite regarding the nature of the causative agent, but calls attention to a pleomorphic Gram-negative organism consistently isolated from sinusitis exudate. Recently studies to determine something of the nature of the causative agent of infectious sinusitis of turkeys were undertaken at this station. * Approved as Technical contribution No. 845 from the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, by Mr. A. B. Conner, Director, and Mr. G. B. Winstead, Director of Information and College Publications.
EXPERIMENTAL
The exudate from field cases of sinusitis in turkeys was shown to be capable of producing a characteristic infection in chickens when such exudate was swabbed into their nasal cavities. The infection in chickens was characterized by nasal discharge and distention of the nasal chambers with caseous material. The exudate taken from the experimentally infected chickens was capable of producing a typical sinusitis in turkeys. In cultural studies of sinusitis material an organism was recovered which produces gas when grown in meat mash media or in blood at the base of agar slants. The cultured organism produced the disease in the chicken and material from the chicken thus infected produced sinusitis in turkeys. Mice inoculated with the cultures failed to show signs of illness even after two weeks, but if such mice were destroyed 48 hours after inoculation the organism could be readily isolated
[247]
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
The use of turkey feathers for lining clothing and for insulating material has caused some interest in the yields of feathers that may be expected from turkeys. Records were kept of the live weight, -weight of blood, body feathers, and quill feathers of Beltsville Small White turkeys dressed at 28 weeks of age. In a group of 30 females the dressing loss expressed as percent of live weight (9.0 pounds) was 10.03 ±0.85 percent. Of this the blood accounted for 3.10 + 0.50 percent and the feathers for 6.93 + 0.80 percent. Quill feathers made up 26.23 + 3.12 percent of
248
RESEARCH NOTES
CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
The organism causing turkey sinusitis is a pleomorphic Gram-negative rod. In blood cultures small coccoid rods or filaments may be observed. Those observed in meat mash media are predominantly rod shaped, whereas those on agar slants or in broth media are characterized by
long filaments, large rounded forms, short rods and chains of short rods. Gas is produced in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media with freshly isolated cultures. The colonies on agar slants are small, rounded, flat and white to bluish-white in appearance. In broth diffuse clouding is noted, later a flocculent precipitate is formed. There is no visible growth on potato, litmus milk is unchanged, no H2S nor indol is produced, nitrates are reduced to nitrites and the methyl red test is negative. Blood at the base of agar slants is hemolyzed. Two strains studied extensively fermented dextrose, sucrose, mannose, dulcitol, rhamnose, sorbitol, galactose, leyulose, trehalose, mannitol, inulin, raffinose, and dextrin, with acid but no gas, and failed to ferment lactose, maltose, xylose, salicin and esculin. The organism would seem to differ from fowl cholera strains because the latter, according to Merchant (1942) does not ferment rhamnose, trehalose, inulin, raffinose, and dextrin. DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY
Exudate from infectious sinusitis of turkeys was infectious for chickens when inoculated intranasally and material from these chickens would in turn infect turkeys. The infectious sinusitis from which the exudate was obtained was found on three widely separated farms in Texas. The organism, when injected into mice, could be recovered in cultures and used to infect chickens, and material from the chickens would in turn infect turkeys with typical sinusitis. The organism produced gas in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media on primary isolation. Further study indicated that its physiological properties were such that it probably belongs in the genus pasteurella. According to Bergey (1939) none of the pasteurella group produce gas but an or-
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
from the liver by placing small particles of the liver tissue into the culture media. The cultures recovered from mice were also capable of inciting infection in chickens and material from these infected chickens in turn would incite a sinusitis in the turkey. For a time we labored under the impression that we were dealing with an organism, which we previously had isolated from chickens showing caseous distentions of the nasal passages, commonly referred to as "roup," and which has been tentatively identified as Actinomyces necrophorus (unpublished data). Filaments were observed in the exudates and cultures of both infections. Both organisms produce filaments in cultures of meat mash media and blood at the base of agar slants. Actinomyces necrophorus does not colonize on the surface of agar while the organism producing sinusitis in turkeys does. Rabbits inoculated intravenously with freshly isolated turkey sinusitis cultures failed to show any symptoms of infection and no attempts were made to recover the organism from them. The use of 0.75 to 1.0 gram of sulfathiazole morning and night to treat mature turkeys affected with sinusitis under field conditions, has resulted in recovery of those showing no caseous accumulations in the sinuses. Those showing lower respiratory involvement without sinusitis also responded to treatment. Experimentally controlled studies have not thus far been undertaken.
RESEARCH NOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author is deeply indebted to Doctors H. Schmidt and R. D. Turk of the
Division of Veterinary Science, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, for their interest in the work and assistance in assembling the information for publication. JOHN P. DELAPLANE Division of Veterinary Science A. & M. College of Texas College Station, Texas Received for publication February 24, 1944. REFERENCES
Hinshaw, W. R. 1943. Infectious sinusitis. Diseases of poultry, Iowa State College Press, 1943, pp. 921-924. Merchant, I. A. 1942. Veterinary Bacteriology. Iowa State College Press, Ames, Iowa, p. 365. Bergey, 1939. Manual of determinative bacteriology. Fifth Edition. Williams and Wilkins Company, Baltimore, Maryland, pp. 290-291.
ORAL ADMINISTRATION OF ESTROGENS IN POULTRY The fat content of the body of female chickens increases rapidly at the onset of lay (Hainan and Cruickshank, 1933). The researches of Zondek and Max (1939), Lorenz (1938 and 1943) and Flock and Bollman (1942) demonstrate that this rapid fattening may be artificially induced by subcutaneous injection and implantation of estrogens in male chickens. Many investigators have shown that diethylstilbestrol has a strong estrogenic potency when administered by mouth in mammals. No reports of feeding estrogens to chickens have been found in the literature. Practical usage of estrogens in fattening broiler chickens would be greatly expedited if an inexpensive form could be found which would be effective when mixed in the feed. The tests for oral estrogenic potency used in this study (Table 1) are the increase in oviduct weight, the decrease in comb weight of males and the feather form in the saddle region. Daily administration of 0.5mg. die'thyl-
stilbestrol tablets was tested in lot I. The estrogenic potency was found to be very low. When diethylstilbestrol was fed at the rate of 23 mg. per pound of feed, lots II and III, a distinct estrogenic effect on the oviduct was observed when starting with both day-old and eight-week old chickens. Observations on the dressed chickens from lot III would indicate that the estrogenic potency was insufficient for practical use in fattening. Doses of diethylstilbestrol of over 100 mg. per chicken are much too costly for commercial use at the present market prices of this hormone. Ethinyl estradiol was tested in lot II because the manufacturers have found it to be very potent when orally administered to mammals, particularly man. In this test it has proved to have a stronger estrogenic effect when fed to chickens and might be suitable if costs of manufacture could be lowered equivalent to that of diethylstilbestrol.
Downloaded from http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of California Santa Barbara/Davidson Library on June 28, 2015
ganism was recently isolated by the author from cases of typical chronic fowl cholera which produced gas in blood at the base of agar slants and in meat mash media. It is possible that other freshly isolated strains of the fowl cholera organism also produce gas in meat mash media and blood at the base of agar slants. Such gas production may have been overlooked since these media are not routinely used in studies of the physiological characteristics of this organism. Sulfathiazole has apparently been of some value under field conditions in hastening the recovery of affected birds.
249