Pleuropneumonia-Like Organisms in the Etiology of Turkey Sinusitis and Chronic Respiratory Disease of Chickens

Abstract

Several types of evidence suggest that the causative agents of turkey sinusitis and chronic respiratory disease of chickens might belong to the pleuropneumonia group of microorganisms. Their sensitivity to antibiotics, their morphology and staining reactions, the chronic nature of the lesions with which they are associated, the joint lesions in chick embryos produced by certain strains—these characteristics are consistent with the known properties of certain members of the pleuropneumonia group. Nelson (1936a, b, 1939) who described the coccobacillary bodies associated with a coryza of slow onset in chickens, raised the question of the relationship of the agents which he cultivated in tissue culture and other media to members of the pleuropneumonia group. Van Herick and Eaton (1945) reported the isolation of a pleuropneumonia-like organism which they believed occurred as a contaminant in chick embryos used in their laboratory. Strains of the agent of chronic respiratory disease of chickens and . . .