Ornithobacterium thinotracheale (OR) is a bacterium responsible for a respiratory disease in turkeys and chickens, and has been identified as one of the emerging respiratory bacterial pathogens.
Ten cases of four hundred cases submitted to National Veterinary Research & Quarantine Service for diagnosis in 2001 and in 2002 were diagnosed as OR infection. The major clinical signs of chickens infected with OR were respiratory symptoms including sneezing, sniveling, wet eyes, and swelling of the sinus infraorbitalis at 3 to 4 weeks of age. At necropsy, gross lesions were commonly found to foamish, white, and yoghurt-like exudates in the peritonium and abdominal air sacs. Microscopically, epithelial metaplasia and proliferation of air sacs were prominant with accompening inflammatory reactions characterized by heterophils, fibrins, and bacterial colonization. Ten field isolates were obtained from by gram-stainging, catalase, oxidase, API NE and API ZYM kit. In addition, using a previously reported primer targeted to 16S rRNA of ORT, 784bp fragment was successfully amplified from templastes extracted from the isolates and a reference strain. This report describes an occurrence of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale infection in chickens in Korea.
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