Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Department of Microbiology

Chlamydia psittaci is a biological agent endemic in nearly all bird species, thereby posing a huge zoonotic reservoir. Economic impact and financial losses resulting from avian chlamydiosis especially those in pet industries combined with that this disease is zoonotic and transmissible to human highlight the necessity of application of proper control measures. In the present study the potential risk of Chlamydia psittaci infection was determined by isolation of chlamydia psittaci in excreta and conjunctival samples of two different genera of budgerigars including melopsittacus undulatus and Agapornis pullarius. The prevalence of chlamydiosis using Gimenez stain (70.3% in australian budgerier, 52.9%in English budgerier, 66.7% in red faced pied lovebird) and direct molecular identification (45.9% in australian budgerier, 64.70 %in English budgerier, 57.1% in red-faced pied lovebird) was high, that suggests that pet bird owners could be under the risk of chlamydial infection. For the first time in Egypt, in the present work, we tried to prepare inactivated vaccine against chlamydia psittaci. Embryonated egg grown material of chlamydia psittaci strains was used as a whole bacterin to vaccinate chickens as available model to avian species. In the Immunization experiment, chlamydia shedding was evaluated through cloacal swabs inoculation in embryonated chicken eggs as well as humoral immune response was evaluated using microimmunoflourescence test. The immunological trial revealed that killed vaccine can effectively reduce chlamydial shedding from birds with proper level of protective antibody titer which made an effective barrier for protection

Issued also as CD