Arthritis In Chickens Research Articles

Slime Production and Antibiotic Resistance of Enterococcus faecalis Isolated from Arthritis in Chickens

Slime factor production and antibiotic resistance of 67 Enterococcus faecalis strains isolated from chicken arthritis were investigated in this study. Slime factor productions of enterococci were found as 59.7%. The antibiotic resistances were investigated by testing gentamycin, penicillin, streptomycin, vancomycin, danofloxacin, and enrofloxacin. The resistance rates were found as 62.68%, 76.11%, 67.16%, 13.43%, 47.76%, 43.28%, respectively. For slime factor positive enterococci, the antibiotic resistance rates were found as follows respectively; 82.50%, 87.50%, 92.50%, 17.50%, 72.50%, and 60.00%. In conclusion; the slime factor might play a role as a colonization factor for chicken arthritis and slime factor positive enterococci were found to be more resistant to these antibiotics. The resistance rates between slime factor positive and negative enterococci against the tested antibiotics except for vancomycin were found statistically significant (p<0.05).

Role of Interleukin-6 in the Pathogenesis of an Avian Model of Staphylococcus aureus Arthritis

To evaluate the role of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in arthritis induced by Staphylococcus aureus, a chicken model was developed for study. A total of 120 healthy broilers (8 wk old) were randomly divided into 4 groups. Two groups were injected with 0.35 mL of Staph. aureus (7.1 × 109 cfu/mL) into the right hock joints and the other 2 were injected with 0.35 mL of sterile saline into the same joints. One group of each of the 2 treatment groups was fed levofloxacin at a dose of 5 mg/kg of BW on the third day postinoculation for 4 successive days. Chicken blood samples were obtained on d 0, 1, 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35 postinoculation. Chicken IL-6 (chIL-6) activities and concentrations in serum were quantified by B9 bioassay and human IL-6 ELISA, respectively. The results showed that chIL-6 activities and concentrations were reduced (P < 0.05) in the serum of infected broilers treated with levofloxacin compared with birds injected only with Staph. aureus. Levofloxacin treatment had no effect on IL-6 activities and concentrations in uninfected broilers. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.91) between serum chIL-6 activities by the B9 bioassay and serum IL-6 concentrations determined by the human IL-6 ELISA. We concluded that chIL-6 is involved in the progression of chicken arthritis induced by Staph. aureus, and that it contributes to disease incidence and mortality.

Cardiac pathology associated with viral and mycoplasmal arthritis in chickens.

Cardiac pathology associated with viral and mycoplasmal arthritis in chickens.

The Cultivation and Modification of the Avian Infectious Synovitis Agent in Tissue Culture

A TTEMPTS have failed to cultivate the organism causing avian infectious synovitis (AIS) in cell-free culture media.4'5,61 2 Lecce et al.5 reported on the propagation in tissue culture of an agent that caused a tendovaginitis with arthritis in chickens. The method employed was the roller-tube technique using embryonic chicken heart. The criterion of growth was cytopathogenic activity. No reports have been made of serial passage of the agent in tissue culture or the infectivity for chickens of the tissue-culture-propagated agent. This paper presents a method for propagating the AIS agent in tissue culture using the Maitland technique and describes the characteristics of the agent grown under these conditions.