Abstract
Two hundred and fifty-four injured and diseased wild birds of 30 species were pathologically examined at the Shiga Prefectural Livestock Hygiene Service Center between February and April, 2004. The most common findings were trauma (138 ; 54.30%), followed by nontraumatic hemorrhage of internal organ (35 ; 13.8%), infection (26 ; 10.2%), nutritional disorder (24 ; 9.4%) and disorder of lymphoid tissue (1 ; 0.4%). Another 30 (11.8%) had no significant lesions and 46 (18.1%) were unfit for examination because of deterioration. The causes of death which were determined for 143 (56.3%) birds consisted of traumatic accident (135 ; 53.1%), infectious disease (5 ; 2.0%), and nutritional disorder (3 ; 1.2%). Pathogens in 26 birds were parasites (13 ; 50.0%), bacteria (9 ; 34.6%), mixture of parasites and bacteria (3 ; 11.5%) and fungi (1 ; 3.8%). Five birds were confirmed have died from the infectious diseases and these were tuberculosis-like granuloma, gizzard ulcer with a number of nematodes in submucosa, necrotic enteritis, purulent inflammation in the air spaces of the cranial bones, and deep mycosis caused by Aspergillus-like-fungi. Neither avian influenza virus nor Newcastle disease virus were isolated from 184 birds. This survey suggest that most of injured and diseased wild birds occurr when they encounter human habitatition, and they have infectious pathogens with high rate. For further study, the monitoring on a routine basis is important.
