Consequences of concurrent Ascaridia galli and Escherichia coliinfections in chickens

Table 2 Number of chickens, parasitic (A. galli), bacterial (nalidixic-acid-resistant O78 E. coli) and pathological findings of second experiment with primary A. galli infections superimposed by secondary E. coli infections

Group	Type, route and dose of infection	Group size	No of dead animals during experiment	Post-mortem findings at slaughter
				Pathological changes	Worm burden (± S.D.)	Re-isolation of E. coli
Ag	Oral 500 A. galli eggs	25	0	25 neg.	5.6 ± 11.0	25 neg.
Ag+Ec8O	Oral 500 A. galli eggs + oral E. coli with 10⁸ cfu	37	0	37 neg.	14.0 ± 1 8.0	37 neg.
Ag+Ec8T	Oral 500 A. galli eggs + tracheal E. coli with 10⁸ cfu	38	1¹	1 PS + PC + AS, 1 FPPS +LNC, 1 FPPC, 34 neg.	10.0 ± 1 4.0	37 neg.
Ec8O	Oral E. coli with 10⁸ cfu	25	1²	24 neg.	0	24 neg.
Ec8T	Tracheal E. coli with 10⁸ cfu	25	4³	21 neg.	0	21 neg.
Control	Uninfected control	25	3⁴	22 neg.	0	22 neg.

AS = airsacculitis; FP = fibrinopurulent; L = liver; neg = negative; NC = necrosis; PC = pericarditis; PS = polyserositis; SP = spleen; ¹ One animal died after the 2nd infection testing positive for a nalidixic-acid-resistant E. coli in liver and spleen and with necrosis of the spleen.
² One animal died after first infection with polyserositis, but was negative for bacteriology.
³ Four animals died after the infection with E. coli; three animals tested positive for a nalidixic-acid-resistant E. coli in liver and spleen. Of these two animals had fibrinopurulent pericarditis, one had polyserositis and the remaining E. coli negative chicken had fibrinopurulent salpingitis.
⁴ Three animals died due to cannibalism, but had no other pathological findings.

ISSN: 1751-0147