Pulmonary Aspergillosis in a Great Rhea (Rhea americana)

Abstract

A 5-mo-old great rhea (Rhea americana) gradually became emaciated over a 1-wk period and died. Necropsy revealed several small yellow nodules in the lungs. Microscopically, the nodules consisted of granulomas containing numerous thin, 4-microm-diameter, septate, branching fungal hyphae. Aspergillus fumigatus grew readily on Sabouraud dextrose agar. This report appears to be the first of mycotic pneumonia in great rheas.

Bir Deve Kuşu Sürüsünde Aspergillozis’in Teşhis ve Tedavisi

“…The clinical signs in our study were similar to those previously described for other avian species and ostriches with aspergillosis 8,26 . Pathological lesions in aspergillosis cases exhibit characteristic forms.…”

“…Contrary to some reports, the lung sticking pleura, crispy and hemorrhage on kidney was observed in the present study. Histopatholgy provides the best opportunity for definitive diagnosis of aspergillosis, since both the fungal organisms and associated granulomatous inflammation can be observed, thus confirming disease 1,3,[8][9][10]13 . The researchers have also observed the presence of Aspergillus hyphae and spores in caseous necrotic masses, as well as cell infiltrations consisting of giant cells, heterophils and macrophages together with necrotic granulomatous foci surrounded with an outer layer of connective tissue.…”

“…Aspergillosis is a debilitating disease and affects a variety of avian species including turkeys, chickens, waterfowl pigeons, quails, ostriches, and penguins [2][3][4][5][6][7] . The clinical features of a fungal infection may be influenced by stress factors, mouldy straw, or long-term antibiotic treatment 8 .…”

The rhea, a ratite native to South America

“…Red blood cells of the Lesser rhea, similar to that of the emu, contain inositol pentaphosphate, a major regulator of the oxygen affinity of a bird's red cells. This component first appears about halfway (23 days) during embryonic development, and increases steadily thereafter to reach a value of 10.7 mmol of phosphate per ml red blood Table 7 Rate of maturing (B,yd) and mature body weight (C m , kg) derived from the Gompertz equation [C ¼ C m 6exp(-exp(-B x (t-t*)))] for Greater rheas compared to ostriches (Du Preez et al, 1992) and broilers (Gous et al, 1999) Rate of maturing ( Reissig et al, 2002b;Copetti et al, 2004), avian tuberculosis (Sanford et al, 1994), chlamydiosis (Camus et al, 1994), enteritis, connected with a Coronavirus-like agent from the intestinal contents (Kennedy and Brenneman, 1995), typhlitis due to histomoniasis (Dhillon, 1983;McMillan and Zellen, 1991), and one of the most commonly reported bacterial causes of foodborne infection in humans, Campylobacter jejuni, (Altekrause et al, 1999), has been isolated from the liver of a rhea chick (Post et al, 1992). Furthermore, avian influenza virus, subtypes H5N2 and H7N1 (Panigraphy et al, 1995), and H4N2, H4N6 and H10N4 were isolated from Greater rheas, illustrating that rheas are susceptible to infection with several avian influenza virus subtypes (Panigraphy and Senne, 1997).…”

Cutaneous, Respiratory and Hepatic Aspergillosis in Brazilian White Pekin Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

“…This was one of the first mycotic diseases to be described and the earliest description in any species was from a wild scaup in 1813 [9]. Nowadays, this disease has been reported in a wide variety of domesticated avian species like chickens [10,11], turkeys [12,13], geese [14,15], quails [16], greater rheas [17,18], and ostriches [19]. Studies of Ghori and Edgar have demonstrated differences in the susceptibility both inter-and intraspecies [20,21].…”