• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.331-337
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• 1993

In order to understand the effect of duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) on the economic performance of ducks, Three groups (DHBV congenitally infected, experimentally infected and DHBV negative) Brown Tsaiya ducks (Anas platyrhyncha) were used for experimental animals. Artificial insemination and pedigree hatching were applied in the propagation of ducklings, and the efficiency of vertical transmission and experimental infection was analyzed through the detection of DHBV DNA in the sera of 8-week-old offspring. The observation of the records of the first year indicated that the persistent infection had no significant effects on the performance of ducks, except the egg number of survival ducks up to 40 week of age. Thus DHBV infection did not appear to give ill effects to the economic performance of ducks in first laying year. A higher infection rate (85.3%) was obtained in congenital transmission than that (75.5%) of experimental infection. Both modes of infection did not reach 100% infectious rate, although some ducks developed transient viraemia in a tracing of DHBV DNA for 24 weeks to 11 challenged ducklings.

• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2011

In January 2010, high mortalities of ducklings occurred in two adjacent farms. Ducklings in farm A showed neurologic signs including paddling, opisthotonus and lameness, but ducklings from farm B had no specific clinical signs. At post mortem, diffused hemorrhagic spots in the liver and hemorrhages in the small intestine were observed in ducklings from farm A, and ducklings from farm B had only proventricular ulceration. Microscopically, multiple necrosis of hepatocytes, hyperplasia of the bile ducts, hemorrhages, infiltration of lymphocytes and bacterial colonies were commonly observed in the liver of ducklings from both farms. Also, type A and C duck hepatitis virus (DHV) were isolated from farm A and farm B, respectively and Salmonella typhimurium was commonly isolated and identified serologically and biochemically. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the co-infection of DHV and Salmonella typhimurium in ducklings, and co-circulation of type A and C duck hepatitis viruses in Korea.