Isolation of Pasteurella multocida during an outbreak of infectious septicemia in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica)

In May 1994, about fifty Japanese quails out of ninety being bred for exper imental purposes at Miyazaki University died of acute septicemia within a f ew days. At autopsy, there were no gross pathological lesions, however, sev ere bacteremia was observed in all cases. Bacterial examination revealed th e presence of Pasteurella multocida in blood and several organs in pure cul ture and they were of Carter's capsular type A, Heddleston's type 3-4 and N amioka's type O-8-9. The LD50 of bacteria in quails and mice were 4.3 x 10( 4) cfu and 3.9 x 10(2) cfu, respectively. All of the three chickens experim entally infected with 4 x 10(4) of the isolate died within 20 hr after the infection and several bacteria were recovered from their blood and organs. This, to our knowledge, is the first report on an outbreak of fowl cholera in Japanese quails in Japan.