Western
Meeting of Poultry
Clinicians and Pathologists
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Clinicians and Pathologists
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Chlamydiosis in Ostriches (Part II): Evidence of Egg Transmission and Response to Treatment Detlef Onderka, Sally Dreger, John Wu Animal Health Laboratories Branch Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development
Chlamydiosis is rarely reported in ratities, but can cause severe clinical signs and mortality in rheas and ostriches. In a large flock of adult ostriches assembled for export, 16 percent of the birds were found to be serologically positive for Chlamydia. From this flock, a group of five hens and one rooster was kept to study fecal shedding patterns using cloacal swabs (see Part I). Eggs from these hens were collected frequently and surface disinfected using Virkon according to farm management practices. Ten eggs with fully-incubated dead-in-shell embryos or weak embryos became available over a one-week period for Chlamydia cultures. Either the embryo or the inner shell membrane were swabbed and all eggs were found to be positive. Given the fact that Chlamydia are non-motile organisms and the standard practice of surface disinfecting the eggs, this suggests that Chlamydia can be egg transmitted, likely through infected oviducts. In order to decrease or eliminate cloacal shedding of Chlamydia sp. and oviduct infection, birds were treated with oxytetracycline at a dose rate of 10g/day. After 44 days, cloacal cultures were negative. Because of a delay in culture results, treatment was continued until 62 days. At 31 days post-treatment, all birds remained negative. Conclusion Chlamydia infection in ostriches appears to be readily egg transmitted. Infectivity into the environment can be eliminated using oral tetracycline treatment at a dose rate similar to the one suggested for the treatment of Chlamydia infection in psittacine birds.
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