Spondylitis in broiler breeder farms in West-Azerbaijan province, Iran: Clinical Report

Spondylitis is a reemerging epidemic spinal infection in male broiler chickens (5 to 7 weeks of age) as well as broiler breeder roosters (15 to 18 weeks of age). Among various causative agents, Enterococcus species and in particular E. cecorum, a gram-positive bacterium as a gastrointestinal flora of birds, have mostly been isolated. On late September 2015, a number of 10 weeks old roosters with characteristic clinical signs of lameness and hock-sitting posture were autopsied. During thorough general routine post-mortem examinations, abnormalities like nodular masses correlated well with the hock-sitting posture and posterior paresis/paralysis were observed in joint spaces on the caudal thoracic vertebral column (T6-T7) immediately anterior to the kidneys in all affected birds. At histopathological examinations, osteomyelitis with limited pathological lesions including mononuclear inflammatory cells infiltration and edema in spinal cord were seen and the infection was diagnosed as an acute spondylosis.