Examination of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale presence and pathomorphological changes in broiler respiratory organs in intensive broiler production

Abstract

Three flocks of broilers from the epizootiological region of South Banat, Serbia were chosen for examination, one flock with manifestation of respiratory disorders and two control flocks without respiratory disorders. In the flock with manifested respiratory disorders which was marked as flock number one (flock 1), high seroprevalence of specific antibodies for O. rhinotracheale (46%) was found in 30-dayold broiler chickens. The symptoms presented were: depression, reduction in feed consumption and water intake, sneezing, mucosal nasal discharge and facial edema. Production results were below technological standards due to increased mortality, decreased growth range and increased number of stunted chickens. Autopsy found frequent changes in the trachea, air sacs and lungs, which were manifested as: tracheitis catarrhalis, aerosacculitis fibrinosa and pneumonia fibrinosa. In control flocks marked as flock number two (flock 2) and flock number three (flock 3) where 4 % and 8 % of seropositive chickens were found, there were no clinical signs which would indicate illness, and production results were much closer to technological standards as compared with flock 1. Autopsy found lower number of chickens with changed respiratory organs as compared with flock 1; in addition intensity of changes was lower than in flock 1. No case of airsacculitis was found in flocks 2 and 3, which was a frequent finding in flock 1

Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale: An Update Review about An Emerging Poultry Pathogen

“…The lungs may have hemorrhagic lesions, in which blood is eliminated through the mouth [26,27]. Erythrocytes in the airways caused by ORT infection lead to hyperemia with subsequent blood congestion [28].…”

“…Many researchers have used serology to investigate ORT infections, but the results show wide variations. In the poultry industry, the presence of anti-ORT antibodies in chickens has been reported in many countries [2,15,22,24,27,28,36,37,41,52,[55][56][57]. Serology has advantages compared to bacterial isolation, since antibodies persist for several weeks after infection [5,12,53].…”

Comparative pathomorphological, bacteriological and serological examination of broiler breeders and pheasants experimentally infected withOrnithobacterium rhinotracheale

“…The first data relating to disease caused by Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) originate from 1991 (van Beek et al, 1994), but the role of this bacterium in the pathology of avian diseases continues to be subject to investigation. Based on experimental investigations (van Empel et al, 1996(van Empel et al, , 1999Marien et al, 2005;Thachil et al, 2009) and field trials (Travers, 1996;De Rosa et al, 1997;Erbeck & McMurray, 1998;Hafez, 1998;Sakai et al, 2000;Sprenger et al, 2000;Zorman-Rojs et al, 2000;van Veen et al, 2000b;Gavrilović et al, 2012) the opinion that ORT is a secondary opportunistic pathogen prevails in the literature. However, Sprenger et al (1998) and van Veen et al (2000a) demonstrated, in experimentally infected turkeys and broilers, respectively, that ORT is a primary pathogen for them.…”