Liver abnormality in broiler carcases
Randall, C.J.; Stevens, H.; Walsby, J.B.; Ashton, W.L.
Veterinary Record 112(7): 159
1983
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4900 PMID: 6845620 Document Number: 220523
A liver condition, the cause of which is unknown, was encountered during slaughter of two flocks of 33 000 and 34 000 birds; 1200 carcasses in one flock and 519 in the other were condemned for liver lesions and jaundice. The birds were seven weeks old at slaughter and had not shown clinical signs nor increased mortality rate. The carcasses were severely jaundiced with discoloured skin, fat and musculature. The livers were enlarged pale and mottled and showed small yellow stellate foci beneath the capsule and throughout the parenchyma. In most cases gall bladders and bile ducts were thickened and distended with brown viscous bile or inspissated cream-coloured material. The spleens and kidneys were swollen. Most of the livers presented a histological picture of chronic and severe hepatitis in which bile duct proliferation and infiltration of immature granulocytes were prominent features. No consistent bacterial isolations were made, although isolates of E. coli, Clostridium perfringens and Pasteurella haemolytica were obtained.