Experimental aspergillosis in Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica). Clinical signs and haematological changes.

Intratracheal inoculation of 2-week-old quail chicks with Aspergillus fumigatus resulted in the development of clinical signs within 24 h of infection. These were characterized by anorexia, depression, accelerated respiration and gasping followed by death. The acute course of the disease lasted for 7-10 days followed by recovery in the surviving chicks. The overall mortality during a 6-week observation period was 20%. Although the mean body weight of A. fumigatus infected quail chicks continued to be slightly lower throughout the experiment but the difference, in comparison to controls, was not significant except at 42 days post-infection. There was no appreciable difference in the mean values of Hb, TEC, PCV, MCV, MCH and MCHC between the infected and control chicks at any stage of infection but TLC revealed a leucocytosis from 2-7 days which was the result of increase in the relative percentage of heterophils and decrease in lymphocytes.