Amyloid arthropathy in chickens

The present paper presents an overview of current knowledge of amyloid arth ropathy in chickens, and covers the pathogenesis of amyloidosis in general and in birds, field cases reported, and the studies performed to assess the amyloidogenicity of various agents compared to that of Enterococcus faecal is, An animal model of amyloid arthropathy is presented, as are studies on the pathogenesis of arthropathic and amyloidogenic E. faccalis infections i n brown layers. The review concludes with a description of the pathology of amyloid arthropathy, the biochemical characterization of the chicken joint amyloid protein as being of the AA type, investigation of the serum amyloi d A (SAA) gene involved, and local SAA mRNA expression in joint and liver.