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This article was published in 1951
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INSTITUTE OF INSPECTORS OF STOCK OF N.S.W. YEAR BOOK.
Moniliasis or Thrush in Poultry
I. G. PEARSON, B.V.Sc., Veterinary Research Station, Glenfield
Moniliasis is a disease of human infants, young birds, calves and colts. Apparently it is most serious in young birds. Chickens, poults, squabs, goslings and young pheasants, grouse and quail are susceptible. Monilia (Oldium) albicans, a yeast-like fungus, is the pathogen. The fungi of this genus reproduce by budding, form septate mycelia and do not produce ascospores.
This disease of the upper digestive tract is often associated with unhygienic management or secondary to other debilitating conditions. It is said that turkeys under 4 weeks of age rapidly succumb, but that there is a high percentage of recoveries in birds three months old. Mortality is up to 20% of the batch. The number of outbreaks of this disease (in New South Wales) has increased markedly over the last two years. Between 1944 and 1949, 17 cases were recorded at Glenfield; in 1950, 23 cases; and up to April, 1951, there have been 11 outbreaks.
Symptoms are not specific, but include unsatisfactory growth, listlessness, inappetence, slimy discharge from mouth, and poults are said to show sunken eyes and sinuses and to stand around with heads drawn back on shoulders. Lesions occur most commonly in the crop, but the pathogen has been recovered from lesions in the mouth, sinuses, oesophagus, proventriculus, gizzard and even the small intestine. In the crop occur soft, whitish, circular, raised ulcers. These may be scattered, but often coalesce. The surface tends to scale off, leaving superficial ulcers, but the lesions are relatively non-inflammatory. Often a catarrhal or thick mucoid exudate forming a pseudo membrane is present in more acute cases. Ulcer-like patches occur in the mouth and oesophagus. When the proventriculus is affected it is swollen, the serosa appears smooth and glossy; while the mucosa is haemorrhagic and covered with a catarrhal or necrotic exudate.
The diagnosis depends on the observation of the characteristic lesions, the presence of yeast bodies and mycelia in Gram-stained smears and a heavy growth on primary cultures. "Heavy growth" is stressed because M. albicans may be cultivated from apparently normal tissues. To reduce contamination, the crops are washed out before deep scrapings are sown on to Sabouraud's agar.
Since Moniliasis often is associated with unhygienic, over-crowded conditions, sanitation and adequate diet are important factors in control. If possible the birds should be moved to clean, disinfected quarters and daily cleaning and disinfection of food and water containers appears to be beneficial. Coal-tar derivatives and methylated spirits have been found to be ineffective as disinfectants and it was suggested that iodine preparations be used. The writer has found Tint. Iodi Mitis effective.
An Epsom salt flush followed by copper sulphate solution replacing the drinking water (a level teaspoonful to each 2 gallons) on alternate days for a week has been suggested as a treatment. Another author recommends that a 1 in 2,000 solution of copper sulphate should be used as the sole source of drinking water for turkeys during the course of the outbreak. Visible lesions may be removed and the area painted with glycerin-iodine solution (glycerin, four parts; tincture of iodine. one part). Gentian violet 1% is used for children and may prove to be beneficial for individual treatment. The writer has used 2 mls. of 2% boric acid solution to flush out the crop of three-week-old chickens, but further work needs to be done before this treatment can be evaluated. The 1 in 2,000 copper sulphate solution has been used widely in New South Wales.