Case Report: Aortic Rupture in Turkeys Used in Studies with Candida albicans

Abstract

Twenty-seven Broad Breasted Bronze (BBB) day-old poults were obtained from the Poultry Science Department. They were kept in brooders for the first four weeks on 28% protein starter and for the fifth and sixth weeks on 18% protein starter. At seven weeks they were divided into three groups of nine each and kept in separate wire cages: Group I received 18% starter deficient in vitamin A; Group II received 18% starter supplemented with 1500 g chlortetracycline per ton of feed; and Group III received 18% starter. At ten weeks of age all three groups were inoculated by crop intubation with 100,000,000 Canadida albicans blastospores (isolate #1539, obtained through Dr. H. Yacowitz, Squibb Institute of Med. Res.). The first aortic rupture case occurred in a male of Group II four days before the experimental exposure to C. albicans. Within the next four weeks another poult from Group II and three poults from Group III died from aortic rupture. All