Prevalence of a Septicemia Disease in the Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon) in China

Abstract This study investigated six cases of septicemia in young crested ibises (Nipponia nippon). These birds all died with similar clinical signs, including sudden death, anorexia, diarrhea, and lameness. Immediately after death, the birds were necropsied; a blood sample was taken from heart and tissues were sampled from liver, lung, spleen, peritoneal mucus, and feces for bacteriologic examination. Anatomic observation showed that the main findings common to the sick birds were arthrocele, associated with congestion in the femur, tibiotarsus, and ventral side; swelling in the liver; hemorrhagic pericarditis; miliary tubercles in lung; and fibrous tubercles in the synovial capsule of the knee joint with suppurative abscesses. Through bacterial examination, the colonial type of Escherichia coli strain was represented prominently in cultures of the feces, heart blood, liver, lung, spleen, suppurative mucus of the synovial capsule, and peritoneal exudate. These symptoms suggested that the death of a numbe...