Necrotic enteritis in a captive mute swan (Cygnus olor) in the breeding season

Abstract

Abstract A captive mute swan ( Cygnus olor ) in the brooding period was found dead without any specific signs. On necropsy, the entire digestive tract was severely necrotized with loosely adherent pseudomembranes, and Clostridium perfringens (CP) colonies isolated from the intestinal contents were identified as CP type A by polymerase chain reaction. Microscopically, the intestine and the liver were necrotized and intralesional bacterial clusters were observed. In this case, there were no other mortalities, so the con-dition of a single bird, in particular, stress from incubation effort, could act as the predisposing factor for necrotic enteritis. In this study, we report a unique case of necrotic enteritis associated with in-cubation in a captive mute swan. Key words : Cygnus olor , Incubation effort, Mute swan, Necrotic enteritis, Stress factor INTRODUCTION Necrotic enteritis (NE) is a clinically dramatic enteric disease afflicting birds which is characterized by an in-testinal necrotic fibrinous pseudomembrane with a “Turkish towel” appearance (Opengart and Songer, 2013). NE occurs in the presence of predisposing fac-tors, such as feed ingredients, stress or intestinal para-sites (Timbermont et al, 2011) that cause a microbial imbalance favorable for the overgrowth of the causal agent,