Fowl cholera

Cock of a breeding flock with green diarrhea

Fowl cholera is also called avian cholera, avian pasteurellosis and avian hemorrhagic septicemia.[1]

It is the most common pasteurellosis of poultry. As the causative agent is Pasteurella multocida, it is considered to be a zoonosis.

Adult birds and old chickens are more susceptible. In parental flocks, cocks are far more susceptible than hens.[2]

Besides chickens, the disease also concerns turkeys, ducks, geese, raptors, and canaries. Turkeys are particularly sensitive, with mortality ranging to 65%.[3]

The recognition of this pathological condition is of ever increasing importance for differential diagnosis with avian influenza.

  1. ^ K.R. Rhoades and R.B. Rimler, Avian pasteurellosis, in "Diseases of poultry", ed. by M.S. Hofstad, Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, USA ISBN 0-8138-0430-2, p. 141.
  2. ^ Hassan Iraqui, Observation on an outbreak of fowl cholera in a parental broiler flock, Azrou, Morocco, October 2007, unpublished data.
  3. ^ Alberts and Graham (1948), quoted in "Diseases of poultry", op. cit.