A 2-month-old cockatiel was evaluated for diarrhea, dyspnea, and death. Histologic examination of lesions in the crop mucosa revealed hyperkeratosis and the presence of blastoconidia and hyphae. Positive immunohistochemical staining of the organisms was achieved with an antibody directed against Candida spp. Polymerase chain reaction amplification of DNA from crop lesion material with internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) primers yielded fragments of approximately 300 bp, which demonstrated 95% DNA homology with the corresponding sequence from a strain of Candida parapsilosis deposited in the GenBank data base. The Candida species in the lesion of the crop mucosa was therefore identified by DNA sequence analysis as C. parapsilosis.
References
1.
GravesIKaneKRichardsNT: 1992, Pigeons and peritonitis?Nephrol Dial Transplant7:967–969.
2.
KeymerIF: 1982, Mycoses. In: Diseases of the cage and aviary, ed. PetrakLM, pp. 601–602. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, PA.
3.
Kwon-ChungKJBennettJE: 1992, Candidiasis. In: Medical mycology, pp. 280–336. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia, PA.
4.
LinDWuL-CRinaldiMGLehmannPF: 1995, Three distinct genotypes within Candida parapsilosis from clinical sources. J Clin Microbiol33:1815–1821.
5.
PanigraphyBNaqiSAGrumblesLGHallCF: 1979, Candidiasis in cockatiel nestlings and mucormycosis in a pigeon. Avian Dis23:757–758.
6.
TurenneCYSancheSEHobenDJ: 1999, Rapid identification of fungi by using the ITS2 genetic region and an automated fluorescent capillary electrophoresis system. J Clin Microbiol37:1846–1851.
7.
WyattRDHamiltonPB: 1975, Candida species and crop mycosis in broiler chickens. Poult Sci54:1663–1666.
