In vivo diseases include pigeon pox, avian epidemic, diphtheria, cold, tracheitis, thrush, pigeon mycosis, pigeon cholera, paratyphoid fever, intestinal parasitic diseases and so on.
In vitro diseases include feather lice and so on.
It will be described in the following sections.
First of all, pigeon pox
Dove pox is a disease caused by virus, which is the most common disease of pigeons.
Pigeon pox can be divided into skin type and mucous membrane type.
Skin type mainly grows on bare skin, especially around eyes, beak and feet. What we can't see with the naked eye is that pigeon's back is covered with pigeon pox.
Mucosal type is mainly found in the mouth and throat, where deposits that are not easy to fall off are formed and there is an odor.
Sometimes these two diseases can appear at the same time, which is called "pox diphtheria".
Dove pox usually occurs in summer and autumn, with an incubation period of 4-8 days and a course of 3-4 weeks. Lifelong immunity after recovery.
The spread of the disease mainly occurs through contaminated feed and drinking water, especially during pigeon racing.
The saliva, nasal secretions and tears of the sick pigeon drip on the upper and lower floors of the pigeon cage, and when they are dry, they fly with the dust. Pigeons often fight in cages, resulting in skin damage around their noses and mouths, and pox can easily enter pigeons from the damaged areas.
The infected pigeon has become a virus carrier, some are sick, some may not be sick, but in spite of this, it can still transmit the virus to other pigeons.
Mosquitoes are also vectors.
If mosquitoes carrying viruses bite healthy pigeons, healthy pigeons will be infected, so the incidence rate is high in summer and autumn.
Symptoms usually appear after 4- 14 days of infection. After the virus enters the skin, it enters the blood stream and then multiplies in the blood stream. Then it transfers to the liver (the first viral blood syndrome), where the virus further proliferates and then returns to the blood stream (the second viremia). Finally, the virus is deposited on the skin and mucous membrane, causing skin hyperplasia or forming deposition of the throat.
Young pigeons usually suffer from this disease more, and adult pigeons are relatively few.
If it is skin type, it can heal itself after a period of time. If it is mucous membrane type, pigeons will suffocate because their throat and trachea are blocked by sediment.
Second, pigeon trichomoniasis
Pigeon trichomoniasis, also known as oral ulcer, is characterized by a button-shaped yellow deposit on the throat mucosa, from which the name "ulcer" comes.
This disease is caused by a small flagellate, Trichomonas pigeon.
Oral ulcer disease is a worldwide pigeon infectious disease, which can attack all pigeons and other birds, especially chickens and turkeys. According to the investigation report, about 80% pigeons are infected with trichomonas. Adult pigeons often carry worms without obvious symptoms, while young pigeons have serious symptoms and die.
Trichomonas or Trichomonas pigeon, the pathogen of oral ulcer, belongs to protozoa and unicellular flagellates. In order to adapt to the movement, this protozoan is pear-shaped with four flagella, and a wavy membrane extends backward along the edge of the worm, and an axle thorn protrudes from the end of the worm. With the help of these flagella systems, worms can spiral forward in liquids (such as mucus in the mouth and pharynx).
The size of Trichomonas pigeon is: 7- 12 microns long and 3-6 microns wide (one micron equals one thousandth of a millimeter); Multiply by division.
Needle-sized lesions can be seen in many pigeons, which are the accumulation of pathogens. This pigeon has become a frequent source of infection for other pigeons, especially young pigeons.
The pathogen will not cause serious harm to the health of adult pigeons, but it can infect young pigeons through pigeon milk in crops.
The disease often occurs in young pigeons of 2-5 weeks old. Young pigeons eat a lot of wheat straw, feathers and pebbles, causing mucosal damage and causing pathogens to invade the mucosa and be infected.
The same is true of trichomonas navel infection. Because of pollution, trichomonas attached to pigeon nests can invade the navel of pigeons through the unclosed umbilicus.
A large number of pathogens must enter the body before pigeons are infected. In addition, pigeons must be in a susceptible state, and improper feeding management, changing feed or molting for the first time may cause diseases. Because young pigeons lack resistance to this disease, it is particularly important to eliminate pathogens in adult pigeons in prevention.
About a week after infection, sick pigeons appeared depressed, loose feathers and disordered digestive function, which led to diarrhea and emaciation, increased water consumption and decreased food intake. When playing with the squab, it neither pecks its fingers nor reacts with excitement.
There are three types of this disease:
Pharyngeal type
When the pigeon's mouth is open, yellow and white cheese-like deposits can be seen in its mouth, especially in the pharyngeal papilla. These cheese-like lesions can sometimes reach the size of broad beans and hinder eating, drinking and breathing. In some cases, a layer of needle-like lesions was evenly distributed throughout the nasopharyngeal membrane type.
Umbilical cord type
When breastfeeding, if the crop milk drips on the floor of pigeon nest, young pigeons may be infected with trichomonas. The pathogen also invades the navel of young pigeons, causing umbilical trichomoniasis.
Umbilical trichomoniasis can further form a mass under the skin, and its section is often caseous and ulcerated liver damage.
In many cases, infection is local, but it can also spread to abdominal organs, especially the liver.
Visceral type
With the development of the disease, the pathogen of trichomoniasis umbilicus and pharynx can invade pigeon viscera and cause serious lesions. The yellow rough caseous lesion with obvious boundary can go deep into viscera and cause tissue necrosis, which is similar to pharyngeal lesion.
It is difficult to treat because the diseased organs are seriously damaged. Even if treated in time, it can only prevent permanent damage to organs.
The common symptoms of visceral type are depression, fluffy hair, decreased appetite and increased drinking water. The sick pigeon has viscous watery diarrhea, progressive emaciation and weakness. If trichomonas invades the respiratory tract, the sick pigeon will have difficulty breathing and gasp. In order to inhale, they often stretch their necks to make their necks and bodies present a special posture (penguin posture).
The disease started from 4- 14 days after infection, and its course was related to pigeon's constitution. Pigeons often show acute diffuse pharyngeal lesions, which can die in a short time due to dyspnea.
The course of visceral disease is long, and pigeons often die after 2-3 weeks of onset. Adult pigeons often have yellow and white spots in their throats, which are a collection of insects. Pigeons are asymptomatic, but they often spread pathogens outside. Therefore, trichomonas infection can be maintained in the pigeon house for a long time, which is why all pigeons become carriers and hurt their offspring. When environmental factors, poor physique, other diseases, susceptible varieties and other factors exist, the disease can change from asymptomatic to acute, especially for young pigeons, but this is based on the premise of infecting a large number of pathogens.
You can take a crop mucus smear for examination. The method is: before feeding, swab the throat mucus, smear it and put it under an optical microscope, so that trichomonas can be clearly observed. Because almost all pigeons have become asymptomatic carriers, they can only be diagnosed by combining the pathological changes of pharynx and viscera. The nose, pharynx, navel and cloaca of live pigeons should be thoroughly examined. When the corpse is cut open, the internal organs, especially the liver, can see the unique trichomonas lesions.
Mucosal pigeon pox (diphtheria pigeon pox) may be confused with trichomonas pharynx. The ulcer deposits of trichomoniasis are attached to the mucosal surface and easy to fall off, which is a caseous loose focus. Dove pox invades the deep layer of the skin and cannot be peeled off without drawing blood.
Organ damage caused by trichomoniasis may be confused with tuberculosis and salmonella.
When trichomoniasis occurs, the liver lesions are yellow nodules with obvious boundaries, which penetrate into the liver parenchyma; In the case of salmonellosis, gray oily lesions can be seen. In addition, there are rough and gray nodules in tuberculosis, which only slightly protrude from the surface of organs; However, visceral trichomoniasis is still deposited in pharynx or navel, so it can be diagnosed.
The yellow spots of trichomoniasis in adult pigeons are similar to the colonies of Candida, but can be diagnosed by microscopic examination. If it is candida infection, anti-ulcer drugs are not effective.