An acute or subacute rapidly spreading respiratory

disease of young and adult birds characterized by :

• Conjunctivitis
• Foul smelling oculonasal discharge
• Swollen infra orbital sinuses
• Edema of face
• Considerable economical losses

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• Haemophilus paragallinarum
• Characterstics
• Pleomorphic, Gram –ve rods,
• Non spore forming, Non motile,
• Antigenic serotypes are A, B, C
• Killed within few days outside host & easily
destroyed by disinfectants
 Cold weather disease ( autumn & winter)
 Poor housing conditions
 Poor ventilation and over crowding
 Multiage farms
 Susceptibility
 Chickens & Peacocks are highly susceptible
 All ages are susceptible ( 8- 20 weeks )

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Between flocks
o Chronically ill & apparently healthy carrier birds
• Within a flock
o Drinking water contaminated with infective nasal
discharge
o Inhalation of infected aerosol
• Vertical transmission is not known to
occur

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• Rapid onset and high morbidity
•  in feed consumption,
• Poor growth
• Mucoid oculonasal discharge
• Conjunctivitis with some adherence of eyelids
• Facial edema; swelling of face and infra-orbital
sinuses,
• Occasionally swollen wattles (esp. in males)
• Drop in egg production of 10-40%
• Coughing, sneezing, rales and gurgling; respiratory
noises
• Natural course is usually
 10 -12 days in uncomplicated cases
 1- 2 month in complicated cases 5
The route of infection is conjunctival or nasal
 Incubation period of 1-3 days
 Rapid onset of disease over a 2-3 day period with the
whole flock affected within 10 days
 Catarrhal inflammation of the upper respiratory tract,
especially nasal and sinus mucosae

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• Catarrhal inflammation of nasal passages
and sinuses
• Conjunctivitis with cheesy exudate in
conjunctival sac
• Eye-lid adherence
• Edema of face & wattles (unilateral)
• Petechiae of upper respiratory tract
membrane
• Rarely pneumonia and air-sacculitis
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History (rapid spread) and clinical signs
Isolation and identification of organism.
• Sampling
o Dead bird: Swab from the sinus cavity
o Live bird: Mucus forced out from the nostril is
sampled with platinum loop.
• Culture media
o Blood agar cross streaked with nurse culture
(Staph. aureus).Tiny dew drop colonies of 0.3 mm
in diameter
o Chicken embryo 5–7 day old – inoculation via yolk
sac, embryo is killed within 24 hrs
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 Examination of Gram’s stained smear  Gram –ve rods
 Chicken inoculation test: Inoculation of suspect exudate into
chicken older than 4 wks of age  Appearance of signs in 24-48
hrs

Serological tests
• Haemagglutination inhibition (group specific)
• Immunodiffusion test
• Latex agglutination test (type specific)
• Plate or tube agglutination
• AGPT

Molecular diagnostic tests

PCR
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• Mycoplasmosis – M. gallisepticum infection is slow
to develop

• Infectious laryngotracheitis – Bloody

tracheitis, diphtheritic lesions in mucous membrane
• Fowl pox – Warts like lesions, diphtheritic lesion in
pharynx & larynx
• Infectious bronchitis – kidney lesions, nasal & eye
lesions are not noticed, small misshaped eggs
• Newcastle Disease – Haemorrhages in proventriculus
• Avitaminosis A – White pimples down the throat
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 Streptomycin,
 Dihydrostreptomycin,
 Sulphonamides,
 Tylosin,
 Erythromycin

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• Appropriate biosecurity measures
• After cleaning and disinfection of equipment & houses
the premises should be allowed to remain vacant for 2-3
wk before restocking
• Depopulate carriers
• All in - all out Programme
• Avoid introduction of adult birds in flock
• Use of bacterin or live vaccine .( a suspension of killed or
attenuated bacteria for use as avaccine)

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