EXPERIMENTAL TOXOPLASMOSIS IN CHUKAR PARTRIDGES (ALECTORIS-GRAECA)

Thirty battery-hatched chukar partridges (Alectoris graeca) were inocu lated orally with oocysts of the ME 49 or the GT-1 strain of Toxoplasm a gondii. All six chukars given 10,000 GT-1 strain oocysts died or wer e euthanized between postinoculation day (p.i.d.) 3 and 6. Fifteen of 24 chukars given 10,000, 1000, 100 or 10 ME 49 strain oocysts died or were euthanized between p.i.d. 6 and 14. Nine chukars that were not il l by p.i.d. 14 remained clinically normal until euthanized in good hea lth p.i.d. 47 and 67; T. gondii was found by bioassay in mice inoculat ed with tissues of these nine chukars. From the tissues of five chukar s bioassayed individually in mice, T. gondii was isolated from brains of four of four tested, and from the hearts and skeletal muscles of fi ve, and livers of three of five chukars tested. Major lesions in chuka rs that died or those euthanized when ill were enteritis, splenic necr osis, myocarditis and encephalitis. Myocarditis and encephalitis persi sted in chukars examined p.i.d. 47, 53 and 67. All chukars examined p. i.d. 10 developed anti-T. gondii antibodies. Anti-T. gondii antibodies detected in the modified agglutination test were higher than those in latex and haemagglutination tests. The Sabin-Feldman dye test did not detect T. gondii antibodies in sera of chukars. The ME 49 strain of T . gondii was more pathogenic to chukars weighing greater than or equal to 300 g than to the 25 g Swiss Webster mice.