First report of typhlitis / typhlohepatitis caused by Tetratrichomonas gallinarum in three duck species

• Published in: Avian Pathology
• Main Authors: Richter, Barbara, Schulze, Christoph, Kämmerling, Jens, Mostegl, Meike, Weissenböck, Herbert
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Article; Common Eider; Somateria mollissima
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004143; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154060; https://doi.org/10.1080/03079457.2010.518137

Two Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator), one Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus), and one Common Eider (Somateria mollissima) from a German zoological collection died of necrotizing typhlitis / typhlohepatitis within two years. Using a newly established chromogenic in-situ hybridization assay, numerous intralesional trophozoites of Tetratrichomonas gallinarum could be detected in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues from caeca and livers of the affected birds. Partial sequencing of the 18S rRNA-gene revealed two unique nucleotide sequences very similar to T. gallinarum strains isolated from avian and human hosts. One turkey kept in the same zoological collection succumbed to histomonosis (blackhead disease) confirmed with chromogenic ISH at the time of the first duck fatalities. This turkey also harboured T. gallinarum trophozoites within necrotic cell debris in the caecal lumen, which might be epidemiologically related to the T. gallinarum infections in the ducks.