Avian Cholera

Abstract

Avian cholera is an infectious disease of birds caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, whose specific name is derived from the Latin multus = many and cidus = kill, in reference to its pathogenicity for many species, including birds and mammals. The disease occurs among domestic poultry, in which it is usually called fowl cholera, throughout the world, as well as in a wide range of wild birds (Botzler, 1991). Avian cholera has been diagnosed in waterfowl in many countries and often occurs as acute outbreaks of septicemic disease in which large numbers of birds die; e.g., >60,000 birds died at the Muleshoe Refuge in Texas during an epizootic in 1956–1957 (Jensen and Williams, 1964), about 70,000 birds died in north-central California in 1965–1966 (Rosen, 1971a), and approximately 80,000 died in the Rainwater Basin of Nebraska in 1980 (Smith et al., 1989). Even larger outbreaks involving diving ducks occurred in Chesapeake Bay in 1970 and 1978 (Montgomery et al., 1979).