Materials and Methods: A farmer complained that Cobb 500 chickens, raised in the open house, were having bloody diarrhea, open mouth breathing, non-uniform growth, and ruffled feathers. The mortality was about 100 birds (from about 7000 birds) per day. The sick birds were isolated and subjected to physical examination, postmortem, and histopathological analyses. Gross lesions were observed and recorded. The lung samples have proceeded with histopathological evaluations. The lungs, kidneys, trachea, air sac, and heart samples were collected to isolate bacteria and fungi through a series of conventional cultural methods, followed by molecular confirmation of the IBV.
Results: Postmortem examination revealed air sacculitis, hemorrhagic tracheitis, pulmonary congestion, fibrin deposition in the liver and air sac, hemorrhagic enteritis, and renomegaly. The bacterial culture and biochemical tests revealed E. coli in the lungs, trachea, liver, intestine, and kidney samples. However, no fungus could be isolated from those samples. Histological evaluation of lung samples demonstrated infiltration of inflammatory cells in the pulmonary tissues. Apart from this, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction confirmed the presence of avian coronavirus responsible for infectious bronchitis (IB).
Conclusion: The chickens were diagnosed with IB concurrent with E.coli. The chickens exhibited typical nephropathogenic strain of IBV infection, causing high mortality.
RESULTS: Four hundred fifty-three cloacal and farm environment samples were collected from six different commercial chicken farms in Kelantan, Malaysia. E. coli was isolated using standard bacteriological methods, and the isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using disc diffusion and colistin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) by broth microdilution. Multiplex PCR was used to detect mcr genes, and DNA sequencing was used to confirm the resistance genes. Virulence gene detection, phylogroup, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were done to further characterize the E. coli isolates. Out of the 425 (94%; 425/453) E. coli isolated from the chicken and farm environment samples, 10.8% (48/425) isolates were carrying one or more colistin-resistance encoding genes. Of the 48 colistin-resistant isolates, 54.2% (26/48) of the mcr positive isolates were genotypically and phenotypically resistant to colistin with MIC of colistin ≥ 4 μg/ml. The most prominent mcr gene detected was mcr-1 (47.9%; 23/48), followed by mcr-8 (18.8%; 9/48), mcr-7 (14.5%; 7/48), mcr-6 (12.5%; 6/48), mcr-4 (2.1%; 1/48), mcr-5 (2.1%; 1/48), and mcr-9 (2.1%; 1/48) genes. One E. coli isolate originating from the fecal sample was found to harbor both mcr-4 and mcr-6 genes and another isolate from the drinking water sample was carrying mcr-1 and mcr-8 genes. The majority of the mcr positive isolates were categorized under phylogroup A followed by phylogroup B1. The most prevalent sequence typing (ST) was ST1771 (n = 4) followed by ST206 (n = 3). 100% of the mcr positive E. coli isolates were multidrug resistant. The most frequently detected virulence genes among mcr positive E. coli isolates were ast (38%; 18/48) followed by iss (23%; 11/48). This is the first research to report the prevalence of mcr-4, mcr-5, mcr-6, mcr-7, and mcr-8 genes in E. coli from broiler chickens and farm environments in Malaysia.
CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that broiler chickens and broiler farm environments could be reservoirs of colistin-resistant E. coli, posing a risk to public health and food safety.
Materials and Methods: Rat trapping was carried out within the Kota Bharu vicinity near a local wet market. A total of 38 rats were captured and subjected to peripheral blood smearing using Giemsa stain. Positive rats were sent for histopathological analysis for the evaluation of the organ samples.
Results: The presence of trypanosomes was found in one sample from a blood smear. This was connected to a histological lesion on kidney tissues, which revealed a high concentration of trypanosomes. Additionally, the positive sample was confirmed as T. lewisi based on molecular diagnosis via polymerase chain reaction and subsequent sequencing and phylogenetic analysis.
Conclusions: This finding serves as a baseline for further surveillance on T. lewisi population among urban rats in Kelantan and possible zoonotic transmission to humans.
Materials and Methods: The organ samples were subjected to laboratory testing and postmortem inspection. Escherichia (E.) coli and Mycoplasma (M.) gallisepticum were detected using bacterial isolation and molecular diagnostics using polymerase chain reaction.
Results: Chickens with the infection had widespread fibrin buildup in several organs and hemorrhages on the duodenal mucosa. Additional histology and laboratory analysis of organ samples revealed infection with M. gallisepticum, E. coli, and enteric Eimeria spp., all of which are consistent with complex chronic respiratory disease (CCRD) associated with coccidiosis. Tylosin tartrate 20% (w/w) (2.5 gm/l) was prescribed for 1 week along with a combination of the broad-spectrum bacteriostatic drug streptomycin (25 mg/kg) and coccidiostat (2 gm/5 l).
Conclusion: CCRD and coccidiosis are both infectious diseases that can infect chicken flocks, resulting in production losses and carcass quality degradation. Early disease detection and proper treatment should be provided promptly, and tight farm biosecurity should be implemented to prevent chicken mortality on the farm, as was achieved successfully.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A broiler duck farm with a population of 900 Muscovy ducks was having a complaint of a 5% mortality rate in their 3-week-old ducklings. Upon presentation, 10% of the ducks appeared to be listless, dyspneic, ruffled feathers, and cyanotic. Postmortem examination of the dead birds was conducted. The collected samples were subjected to isolation and identification of the associated Aspergillus fumigatus under the microscope using the scotch tape method.
RESULTS: Postmortem examination revealed whitish to creamy caseous nodules in the lungs, thoracic air sacs, gizzard, proventriculus, and intestines. Granuloma lesions and infiltration of inflammatory cells were observed in the lung and liver tissues. As for therapeutic management, all ducks were treated with copper sulfate, erythromycin, and multivitamins as the fungicide, antibiotic, and supplement, respectively, via drinking water.
CONCLUSION: There is no effective treatment for Aspergillosis as the spores are difficult to destroy completely. Nonetheless, the disease can be controlled and prevented effectively with proper farm sanitation and providing a suitable feed storage environment to inhibit the growth of this opportunistic fungus.