OCCURANCE OF ULCERATIVE ENTERITIS IN ADULT JAPANESE QUAILS.

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Ulcerative enteritis (UE) was diagnosed in 10 week old Japanese quail based on gross, microscopic lesions and cultural examination of the quails submitted for necropsy. The size of flock was 1000 and the quail were kept in deep litter system. Total mo rtality due to UE was 21.9% and showed decreased egg production. Grossly, intestine particularly duodenum was severely reddened with blood tinged contents in all the quails necropsied. Ileu m showed catarrhal enteritis. Microscopically, section of duodenum showed diffused coagulative necrosis of mucosa with haemorrhages, sloughing of epithelial cells and denudation of villi and infiltration of mononuclear cells in mucosa and sub-mucosa. The occurrance of ulcerative enteritis in adult quails could have resulted possibly due to overcrowding stress and development of wet litter due to heavy rain fall. The quails were treated with Diaveridine and Su lphaquinoxaline @ 1g per litre of water for five days showed improvement in controlling mortality.

Introduction:-
Ulcerative enteritis (UE) is an acute enterotoxaemia, a co mplex, mu ltifactorial and financially devastating bacterial disease caused by the gram-positive, obligate, anaerobic bacteria Clostridium colinum. It is also a normal inhabitant of the intestines of healthy chickens [1] .The ulcerative enteritis that results in clinical disease most often occurs either after a change in the intestinal microflora or fro m a condition that results in damage to the intestinal mucosa [2][3][4] . Anything that promotes excessive bacterial gro wth and toxin production or slows feed passage rate in the small intestine could promote the occurrence of ulcerative enterit is [5] .
In the present study, total of 219 Japanese quails of 10 weeks of age were b rought to the department of Veterin ary Pathology, College of Veterinary Science, Hyderabad fro m local area with the history of sudden death. Detailed necropsy examination was carried out and gross lesions were recorded. Affected organs were collected for cultural, histopathological and electron microscopic examination. Intestinal sample was processed for cultural examination on anaerobic media. History collected fro m farm manager revealed that there was heavy rain fall one week before the outbreak and overcrowding of quails due to repairing work going in other shed. The size of flock was 1000 and the quail were kept in deep litter system.
Clin ically quail showed blood tinged diarrhoea and egg production drop. Similarly, sympto ms were recorded by earlier workers [6] . Gross examination of carcasses revealed emaciation, paleness of mucous membranes, mild congestion of all internal organs. Duodenum was severely reddened, ballooned with blood tinged foul-s melling, reddish-brown flu id contents in all the quails necropsied (Fig.1). The mucosa was covered with a tan to yellow Corres ponding Author:-Y. Ravikumar . Address:-Depart ment of Veterinary Pathology, College of Veterinary Science, R' Nagar, Hyderabad .
187 pseudo membrane. The gross lesions observed in the present investigation are in accord ance with the earlier reports on UE in chicken [7] . Cultural examination showed black coloured colonies and indicated Cl .colinum (Fig. 6).These findings were similar in accordance with other workers [8,9] .
Histopathological examination of duodenum showed diffused coagulative necrosis of mucosa with haemorrhages, sloughing of epithelial cells and denudation of villi (Fig.2). Infiltrat ion of mononuclear cells in mucosa and submucosa along with severe vascular congestion in sub-mucosa and bluish patches in the sloughed epithelial cells indicating bacterial colonies were also noticed (Fig.3, 4). Desquamation, denudation, pseudo membrane formation and shortening of villi were also observed (Fig.5) [6] .
Scanning electron microscopic examination of duodenum revealed numerous RBC with distorted epithelial cells,severe necrosis, distortion and denudation of villi. These findings were similar to earlier reports [9] (Fig.7, 8). Based on necropsy, cultural, histopathological and ultra structural examination, the present case was diagnosed and confirmed as Ulcerat ive enteritis.