samples of formalin fixed gastrointestinal organs of three month ostrich chicks were submitted to the department of pathology, razi vaccine and serum research institute. histologically hepatitis and pancreatitis with large eosinophilic intra nuclear inclusion bodies were prominent in hepatic and pancreatic cells. these inclusions were suspected as adenovirus inclusion body hepatitis (ibh) in va...

Abstract Coprophagy is a behavior where animals consume feces, and has been observed across wide range of species, including birds mammals. The phenomenon particularly prevalent in juveniles, but the reasons for this remain unclear. One hypothesis that coprophagy enables offspring to acquire beneficial gut microbes aid development. However, despite potential importance behavior, studies investi...

Damage to ostrich skins in the form of cuts and scratches obtained during the grow-out phase results in lower quality skins that fetch lower prices. This represents major financial losses to the ostrich industry. The stage at which such damage occurs and its persistence to slaughter age, when it affects skin grading, is not known. In this study we assessed the persistence through to slaughter a...

The effect of changing dietary energy and crude fibre concentrations on the utilization of metabolizable energy (ME) was investigated in four growing ostrich chicks by addition of lucerne meal to a maize-lucerne based diet. The experiment was carried out in an indirect open circuit calorimeter. When ME concentration was lowered by 7.5%, cell wall digestibility decreased by 9% and energy metabol...

In a 2005 serological survey, carried out in response to an outbreak of H5N2 avian influenza (AI) in ostriches in the Eastern Cape Province, 16.3% of ostrich farms in the Western Cape Province of South Africa were found to be seropositive to H5 AI virus. We subsequently carried out a questionnaire-based census survey on all available registered Western Cape ostrich farms that still existed at t...