SOME STUDIES ON HAFNIA ALVEI IN CHICKENS

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This study was aimed to study the epidemiology and the possible ways of treatment of Hafnia alvei (H. alvei) as an enteric pathogen in laying hens during the period from 2007-2010. For this purpose, bacteriological examination of samples collected from 500 laying hens from different localities in Gharbia Province suffering from drop in egg production, decreased hatchability, inappetance, diarrhea, opisthotonus and mortalities revealed isolation of 18 isolates of H. alvei with an incidence of 3.6%. Phage-typing of the isolated strains using Hafnia specific bacteriophage produce clear plaques of lysis with a zone 1-2 mm in diameter confirmed the organism. Antibiogramme of the isolated H. alvei strains revealed high sensitivity to Fosfomycin+tylosin, cephotaxime, Colistin sulphate, Gentamycin, Norfloxacin, Spectinomycin and Ciprofloxacin but were resistant to Amoxicillin, Clindamycin , Enrofloxacin , Cephradine, Kanamycin, Lincomycin, Sulphamethozole trimethoprim, Streptomycin, Spiramycin and Penicillin G. Experimental infection of 38-week-old laying hens with isolated strains of H. alvei and treatment trials using Fosfomycin+tylosin and Garlicin were carried out. Clinical signs, postmortem lesions with re-isolation of the infected strains were discussed in details. Histopathological examination of different organs from experimentally infected hens revealed less sever lesions after treatment with Fosfomycin+tylosin.