Generalised Tuberculosis in Pheasants at a Commercial Breeding Farm

Single infections or even epizootic forms of tuberculosis are common in birds of zoological gardens and game birds in farms as well. They cause economic damage, and the most important of them,Mycobacterium avium, can cause nearly fatal disease in humans. In this article, an epidemic of tuberculosis in pheasants raised on a farm has been described. The disease appeared in a breeding flock of 800 females and 140 males. Clinically affected birds expressed depression, anorexia and loss of weight. The mortality rate was 1–5 birds per day. Blood samples taken from 20 randomly chosen pheasants were agglutinated by use of avian tuberculin, and all were positive. Pathomorphological examination of carcasses of already dead or killed moribund pheasants revealed creamy nodules, mostly in the intestine, liver and spleen, varying in size from miliary to several centimetres in diameter. Pathohistological finding can be described asTuberculosis nodularis partim nodosa et coligranuloma. The colonies that grew on selective nutrient media were identified asMycobacterium sp., most probablyM. avium-intracellulare complex. Based on the findings described, all birds of the farm were killed, the most severely affected carcasses burned and all of them buried near the farm.