Experimental studies of chlamydiosis in Japanese quails

Two-week-old Japanese quails were infected intratracheally with six strains of Chlamydia psittaci isolated from calf pneumonia, swine pneumonia, goat abortion, sheep abortion, kid enteritis, and calf conjunctivitis, respectiv ely. The Japanese quails from infected and control groups were closely obse rved for clinical symptoms. In order to examine the gross and microscopic l esions, quails in each group were sacrificed at 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21 and 30 days post infection. Alterations induced by pneumonic strains were more sev ere than those found in abortion isolates whereas the isolate of conjunctiv itis failed to induce any lesion in the quail. Chlamydia psittaci was succe ssfully recovered from lungs, spleen and intestinal contents of sacrificed quails. Calf pneumonia and goat abortion strains could be propagated in qua ils for a longer period (30 days), than in swine pneumonia, sheep abortion, kid enteritis (15 days each) and calf conjunctivitis isolates (7 days). Th e control quails were normal and no isolation could be made from them.