Pseudomonas Infection in Turkeys

DURING the investigation, in the fall of 1938, of an outbreak of a disease in approximately 19,000 turkeys with a morbidity rate of nearly 50 percent and a very low mortality, a hemolytic pseudomonas was isolated in pure culture from the heart and liver of a recently dead turkey. Stained smears from the heart blood and liver showed numerous pleomorphic, at times granular or irregularly stained rods. This organism was found to resemble closely Pseudomonas aeruginosa. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Pseudomonas infection in poultry has received little attention. Kaupp and Dearstyne (1924) mentioned having isolated Ps. aeruginosa from 4 of 300 autopsies on adult fowls. Turkeys were not mentioned. Essex, McKenney, and Mann (1930) reported on an epizoötic in a flock of 400 White Leghorn and Plymouth Rock chicks from five to nine weeks old. The only organism obtained was Ps. aeruginosa. Hinshaw and Lloyd (1934) insolated Ps. aeruginosa from the . . .