Prevention and Treatment Methods for Ulcerative Enteritis in Quail
(1) Epidemiological characteristics: Ulcerative enteritis in quail is caused by Clostridium colinum and is one of the most serious diseases affecting quail, which is why it is also called “quail disease.” It is an acute infectious disease characterized by diarrhea and intestinal ulcers. The disease is transmitted through the digestive tract; quail become infected by eating contaminated feed, drinking water or litter. Quail of any age can develop the disease, but it occurs most commonly in young quail aged 4 to 12 weeks, with high morbidity and mortality rates.
(2) Clinical symptoms: Acute cases often die suddenly without obvious symptoms, and within 2 to 3 days nearly the entire flock is wiped out. Dead young quail have full, plump muscles. Generally, affected quail are listless, have poor appetite, a crop filled with food, stand still with eyes closed, hunch their backs and pull in their necks, have ruffled feathers, move slowly, have a distended abdomen, diarrhea, and pass watery white droppings, and in the later stages become severely emaciated.
(3) Necropsy findings: In acute cases the main lesions are in the duodenum, with extensive hemorrhage of the intestinal mucosa and viscous fluid in the intestine. The liver is slightly enlarged and pale, with light yellow spots of varying sizes. In chronic cases, irregular ulcers the size of a sesame seed to a mung bean form on the mucosa of the small intestine and ceca; the ulcer edges are hemorrhagic and raised, and the ulcer surface has a layer of yellow or black necrotic pseudomembrane. Deeper ulcers can cause perforation of the intestinal wall, leading to peritonitis and intestinal adhesions. The spleen is congested, hemorrhagic and swollen.
(4) Prevention and treatment methods: (1) Raise young quail on wire mesh so they do not come into contact with droppings. Keep adult quail and young quail separately. (2) Isolate affected quail promptly, clean and disinfect droppings promptly, and bury or burn dead quail deeply; disinfect the quail house and exercise yard regularly. (3) Strengthen feeding management, increase nutrition in the feed, and supplement vitamin C at 300 grams per ton of feed. (4) For the first 3 days, provide streptomycin + penicillin at 2 times the dose in drinking water, then continue providing streptomycin + penicillin for 20 consecutive days, which gives good results; combined with intramuscular injection of streptomycin and penicillin at 10,000 units per bird once, twice a day, morning and evening, the effect is even better. (5) Feed tetracycline or chlortetracycline mixed into the feed at 0.03% for 7 consecutive days. Adding 0.1 to 0.2 grams of bacitracin zinc per kilogram of feed can be used as a feed additive.