COMPARISON OF PHARYNGEAL, FECAL, AND CLOACAL SAMPLES FOR THE ISOLATION OF CHLAMYDIA-PSITTACI FROM EXPERIMENTALLY INFECTED COCKATIELS AND TURKEYS

Direct comparisons were made of chlamydial isolation rates from pharyn geal swabs, fecal samples, and cloacal swabs from cockatiels and phary ngeal and cloacal swabs from turkeys experimentally infected with Chla mydia psittaci. During pathogenesis studies, 133 paired specimens were collected from cockatiels and 118 paired specimens were collected fro m turkeys. Of the 51 cockatiel chlamydial infections defected, 80.4% w ere positive by the pharyngeal swab sample, 45.1% were positive by the fecal swab sample, and 37.3% were positive by the cloacal swab sample . Of the 87 turkey infections detected, 93.1% were positive by the pha ryngeal swab sample and 77.0% were positive by the cloacal swab. The p haryngeal swabs were the most reliable sample for isolation of chlamyd ia from live birds. However, no single sampling site yielded positive results from all infected birds. Specimens from multiple sites are rec ommended because a number of infected birds were identified by isolati on from only 1 sample.