Association of Avian Veterinarians Enteritis Associated with a Coronavirus Like Agent in a Rhea Rhea americana Chick Author s Melissa A Kennedy and Karrie A Brenneman Source Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery Vol 9 No 2 Jun 1995 pp 138 140 Published by Association of Avian Veterinarians Stable URL http www jstor org stable 30134447 Accessed 18 06 2014 10 18 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms the birds had access to a grass lot Feed consisted of ratite starter mix supplemented with bran Gross findings on necropsy were unremarkable The results of histopathologic examination of liver skeletal muscle kidney heart testis adrenal glands and skin were normal Histologic lesions in the small intestine included mild to moderate segmental villous atrophy with branching and fusion of villi Fig 1 The crypts were hyperplastic and branch ing Multifocal infiltrates of heterophils and lym phoid hyperplasia were present in the lamina pro pria of the small intestine Rare epithelial cells lin ing villi were necrotic contained cell debris varied in size and contained small pale eosinophilic inclu sions Fig 1 Bacteriologic culture of colonic tissue resulted in growth of 1 000 colonies of Esche richia coli No Salmonella spp were isolated Intestinal contents were soft A portion of small intestine with contents was submitted for electron microscopy Virus particles varying in diameter from 100 to 290 nm were detected in negatively stained preparations of intestinal contents The par ticles were pleomorphic with a darkened center typ ical of coronaviruses Fig 2 3 4 Distinctive surface projections resembling club shaped peplomers were also present on most particles Fig 2 Particles with similar morphologic characteristics are asso ciated with bluecomb 4 From the Departments of Comparative Medicine Kennedy and Pathology Brenneman College of Veterinary Medicine University of Tennessee PO Box 1071 Knoxville TN 37901 1071 USA 138 This content downloaded from 195 34 79 79 on Wed 18 Jun 2014 10 18 59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions KENNEDY AND BRENNEMAN ENTERITIS IN A RHEA 139 Figure 1 Photomicrograph of small intestine from a rhea chick with coronaviral enteritis Left Villus fusion and blunting with crypt and lymphoid hyperplasia are present H23 103 107 3 Palmer EL Martin ML eds In An atlas of mamma lian viruses Boca Raton FL CRC Press 1982 83 89 4 Ritchie AE Deshmukh DR Larsen CT Pomeroy BS Electron microscopy of coronavirus like particles characteristic of turkey bluecomb disease Avian Dis 1973 17 546 558 5 Dea S Tjissen P Viral agents associated with out breaks of diarrhea in turkey flocks in Quebec Can J Vet Res 1988 52 53 57 6 Timoney JF Gillespie JH Scott FW Barlough JE eds Hagan and Bruner s microbiology and infectious diseases of domestic animals 8th ed Ithaca NY Cor nell University Press 1988 905 909 7 Mebus CA Newman LE Stair EL Scanning electron light and immunofluorescent microscopy of intestine of gnotobiotic calf infected with calf diarrheal coro navirus Am J Vet Res 1975 36 1719 1725 8 Gonder E Patel BL Pomeroy BS Scanning electron light and immunofluorescent microscopy of corona viral enteritis of turkeys bluecomb Am J Vet Res 1976 37 1435 1439 9 Pomeroy KA Patel BL Larsen CT Pomeroy BS Com bined immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopic studies of sequential intestinal samples from turkey embryos and poults infected with turkey enteritis coronavirus Am J Vet Res 1978 39 1348 1354 This content downloaded from 195 34 79 79 on Wed 18 Jun 2014 10 18 59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions