ALKETA QOKU1*, DARDAN SHEHDULE2, BRUNILDA MAZARI3, LULJETA DHASKALI1
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1 Department of Clinical Subject, Faculty of Medicine Veterinary, Agriculture University of Tirana, Albania * Corresponding author; E-mail: aqoku@ubt.edu.al Abstract Abstract section. Avian encephalomyelitis (AE) is a worldwide and economically important viral disease of chickens, turkeys, quail, and pheasants. Avian encephalomyelitis is a viral infection affecting the CNS in the species mentioned above. Diagnosis is based on history, clinical signs and histopathology and the isolation of the virus. The clinical lesions were described in some infected flocks of turkey in Lushnje, Albania. The clinical, pathological lesions and histopathology findings of avian encephalomyelitis (AE) were described in variuos tissues of infected turkeys from Lushnje, Albania. There were controlled three flocks and the age of animals were of 42 days old. Encephalomyelitis in turkeys was diagnoses according to clinical signs, necropsy control and histopathology findings. Histopathology diagnoses of AE was done on various affected tissues of animals. In the affected flocks, there were seen animals with clinical signs like as ataxia and rapid tremor of the head and neck giving rise to the former name “epidemic tremor”. The other observed clinical signs were depression, anorexia, incoordination of the extremities due to paresis, deformity, dehydration and low weight. In some turkeys were observed ascites, lesion in the kidneys, intestines and gizzard at the necropsy. No gross lesion was seen in the brain of turkeys infected with avian encephalomyelitis.The main histopathology alterations, included oedema and congestion, were seen in visceral organs and in the brain, where there were thickened meninges and a lot of infiltrations of lymphocytes and macrophages. In conclusion of our study, we can confirm that avian encephalomyelitis cause health and economic problems in poultry. The most important finding occurs in the brain, accompanied by thickened of meninges and perivascular cuffing The disease has to been under control by vaccination of the parent stock and the serological control of animals prior to egg production by ELISA, especially in flock with history of AE. Keywords: Avian encephalomyelitis, histopathology, turkeys |