Introduction
Caused by the bacterium Arizona hinshawii, renamed Salmonella Arizonae. It affects turkeys, mainly in North America, and is not present in the UK turkey population. Mortality is 10-50% in young birds, older birds are asymptomatic carriers. Transmission is vertical, transovarian, and also horizontal, through faecal contamination of environment, feed etc, from long-term intestinal carriers, rodents, reptiles.
Signs
* Dejection.
* Inappetance.
* Diarrhoea.
* Vent-pasting.
* Nervous signs.
* Paralysis.
* Blindness, cloudiness in eye.
* Huddling near heat.
Post-mortem lesions
* Enlarged mottled liver.
* Unabsorbed yolk sac.
* Congestion of duodenum.
* Cheesy plugs in intestine or caecum.
* Foci in lungs.
* Salpingitis.
* Ophthalmitis.
* Pericarditis.
* Perihepatitis.
Diagnosis
Isolation and identification, methods as per Salmonella spp. Differentiate from salmonellosis, coli-septicaemia.
Treatment
Injection of streptomycin, spectinomycin, or gentamycin at the hatchery is used in some countries. Formerly in-feed medication with nitrofurans was also used.
Prevention
Eradicate from breeder population, fumigation of hatching eggs, good nest and hatchery hygiene, inject eggs or poults with antibiotics, monitor sensitivity
