Table 1.

Necropsy and organ RT-PCR results of four birds from the flock that died within a year of arrival in the aviary

Bird band number	L green 36L 0425 Dante	L Purple 28 Bobo	L 23P 08 01 Camelot	No band white 23
Date of death	12 February 2012	6 March 2012	19 March 2013	7 February 2012
Necropsy results	Moderately dilated proventriculus	Enlarged black liver	Pale heart, distended pericardium. Mildly distended proventriculus	Mildly enlarged proventriculus containing fluid. Pale mottled kidneys
Histopathology	Mild hepatitis, myocardial degeneration Mild proventriculitis	Hepatitis, myocarditis, nephritis. No evidence of PDD	Myocardial degeneration Nephritis Mild encephalitis	Mild nephrosis and enteritis
Shedding detected	8×	8×	12×	1×
PCR results
Crop	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Proventriculus	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Ventriculus	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Intestine	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Cloaca	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Adrenals	Pos	–	Pos	Neg
Liver	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Spleen	Pos	–	Pos	Neg
Kidney	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Heart	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Lung	Pos	–	Pos	Neg
Sciatic nerve	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Brachial plexus	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Pancreas	Pos	–	Pos	Neg
Brain	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Spinal cord	Pos	Pos	Pos	Neg
Optic nerve	Pos	–	Pos	Neg
Eye	Pos	–	Pos	–
Gonads	–	Pos	Pos	–

Notes: Three other birds that died were also necropsied. They had neither gross nor microscopic lesions of PDD, although their tissues were not tested by RT-PCR.

Abbreviations: Neg, negative; PDD, proventricular dilatation disease; Pos, positive; RT-PCR, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction.