Pavone Silvia, Salamida Sonia, Pecorelli Ivan, Rossi Elisabetta, Manuali Elisabetta
Diagnostics and Animal Welfare Area, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Umbria e delle Marche, Italy.
J Vet Med Sci. 2014 Sep;76(9):1209-12. doi: 10.1292/jvms.14-0129. Epub 2014 Jun 11.
A widespread deadly outbreak occurred in captive birds belonging to the family Turdidae in Italy. The present study was performed on 46 dead birds coming from 3 small decoy-bird breeders in central Italy. Only Turdus pilaris, Turdus iliacus, Turdus philomelos and Turdus merula were affected. No other species of bird held by these breeders died. A change of diet before the hunting season was reported from all breeders. Full necropsy of the animals and histological investigations of representative tissue samples were performed. Microscopical examination showed marked iron deposits in liver samples. Bacteriological investigations and molecular analysis to exclude bacterial and viral diseases were carried out. Contamination of food pellet samples by mycotoxins and analysis to detect heavy metal contaminants in food pellet samples were considered. An interesting result was the high iron content found in food pellets. It was higher than that considered suitable for birds, especially for species susceptible to development iron storage disease (ISD). Taken together, the results suggested an outbreak of ISD caused by the high iron content of food given to the birds before the hunting season. The high mortality recorded only in species belonging to the family Turdidae suggests a genetic predisposition in the affected birds.
意大利画眉科圈养鸟类中发生了一场广泛的致命疫情。本研究对来自意大利中部3个小型诱鸟饲养者的46只死鸟进行了检测。仅田鸫、白眉歌鸫、欧歌鸫和乌鸫受到影响。这些饲养者饲养的其他鸟类均未死亡。所有饲养者均报告在狩猎季节前改变了鸟类饮食。对这些动物进行了全面尸检，并对代表性组织样本进行了组织学研究。显微镜检查显示肝脏样本中有明显的铁沉积。开展了细菌学调查和分子分析以排除细菌和病毒疾病。考虑了食物颗粒样本被霉菌毒素污染的情况以及对食物颗粒样本中重金属污染物的检测分析。一个有趣的结果是在食物颗粒中发现高铁含量。该含量高于认为适合鸟类的水平，尤其是对于易患铁储存病（ISD）的物种。综合来看，结果表明狩猎季节前给鸟类投喂的食物中铁含量过高导致了铁储存病的爆发。仅在画眉科鸟类中记录到的高死亡率表明受影响鸟类存在遗传易感性。
