Parasitological and histopathological examination of Cocktail lovebirds infected with Eimeria aratinga (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae)

Abstract

Coccidiosis is a devastating worldwide disease and is considered a dreadful disease in lovebirds. Indeed, a problem has been appeared cocktail lovebirds kept in a private pet birdhouse in Sheikh Zayed City, Giza, Egypt, in the shape of blood-tinged diarrhea, birds huddled together and showing signs of inappetence, ruffled feathers, unable to fly, general weakness and emaciation associated with high mortalities. Therefore, this study aimed to diagnose and find a suitable treatment to overcome such problems. To achieve this aim, blood and droppings samples were collected from infected and healthy birds for parasitological and hematological examinations, and tissue samples were collected from freshly dead birds for postmortem and histopathological examinations. A treatment trial was adopted on 50 infected birds and 25 healthy and parasitological negative birds and groups were classified as follows: group 1) 25 infected birds treated with Diclazuril, group 2) infected birds treated with Coccicure, and group 3) 25 birds kept as control negative reference birds. The parasitological identification revealed the presence of Eimeria aratinga (E. aratinga) oocysts in the infected bird intestine. Finally, we concluded that E. aratinga is a serious protozoon parasite infesting lovebirds revealing severe clinical signs, high mortalities, histopathological changes in the intestine and alteration in blood parameters. Diclazuril is an effective drug in treating E. aratinga in cocktail lovebirds.

Keywords: blood parameters, diclazuril, Eimeria aratinga; cocktail lovebirds; histopathology; parasitology, sulfonamide.

Figure 1

A: Cocktail love bird showing signs of depression, ruffled feathers and unable to fly. (B) Freshly dead cocktail love bird 24 h after the onset of the clinical signs.

Figure 2

(A) Postmortem examination of cocktail love bird showing protrusion of keel bone with slight paleness of the breast muscle. (B) Postmortem examination of cocktail love bird showing severe liver congestion.

Figure 3

(A–C) Postmortem examination of cocktail love bird showing hemorrhagic enteritis.

Figure 4

(A, B) Postmortem examination of cocktail love bird showing severs intestinal congestion with variable degrees of hemorrhagic enteritis.

Figure 5

Eimeria aratinga in Cocktail love birds’ feces; (A) un-sporulated oocyst; (B)sporulated oocyst of E. aratinga after sporulation with Potassium dichromate.

Figure 6

Eimeria aratinga infected intestine stained with H&E; (A, B) intestine of birds heavily infected with schizont; (C) macrogametes of Eimeria aratinga in the infected intestine that round with large eosinophilic plastic granules on the periphery. (D) microgametes of the Eimeria aratinga with multiple nuclei.

Figure 7

(A) Intestine showing developing stages of Eimeria schizonts (arrow) in lamina propria of villi. (B) Intestine showing desquamation of enterocytes epithelium, mononuclear cell infiltration in muscularis mucosa. (C and D) Intestine showing loss of epithelial tissue, severe muscular edema, necrosis of submucosa, loss of villi, disruption of the intestinal mucosa, clusters of Eimeria different developmental stage (arrow) with mononuclear cells infiltrations.

Figure 8

(A–C) Intestine showing the presence of different developing stages of Eimeria in lamina propria of villi with necrosis of submucosa and severe muscular edema. (D) Intestine showing desquamation of enterocytes epithelium with mononuclear cells infiltrations with muscular edema.