EXPERIMENTAL MELIOIDOSIS IN HENS

Experimental intramuscular infection of hens with Pseudomonas pseudoma llei, strain 2796 (1 x 10(9) CFU from a 24-h culture) was reproduced. Clinical, paraclinical and pathomorphological findings were followed f rom 1 to 30 days after challenge. Haemagglutinin titre, bacterial diss emination in the viscera, number of leucocytes, alveolar (aMa) and per itoneal (pMa) macrophages and their phagocytic activity in vitro were studied. During the course of infection a leucocytosis as well as an i ncreased haemagglutinin were (1:258) were established. The number of b acteria per gram tissue in the spleen and liver was highest at 1 day p ost-infection (p.i.). Melioidose bacteria from egg yolk were isolated at 15 and 30 days p.i. Leucocyte and pMa phagocytic activity was maxim al at 3 days p.i. unlike the activity of aMa which increased gradually until the end of the study. Inflammatory-necrotic changes were found in the viscera and brain at 3 and 15 days p.i. The investigation of ex perimental melioidosis infection in hens showed that they are suscepti ble to P. pseudomallei and this disease takes a generalized subacute c ourse.