ASPERGILLOSIS IN ARTIFICIALLY BREEDING BLACK SWANS (CYGNUS ATRATUS) IN DPR KOREA AND IDENTIFICATION OF CAUSE FUNGUS

Black swans (Cygnus atratus (Latham) 1790), which was native in Australia, were distributed all over the world and artificially reared. Aspergillosis is non-contagious fungal disease infected in some poultries and wild birds and the important agent are some of Aspergillus species.

Infection by Aspergillus species results in respiratory disease in poultry and wild birds. The disease is generally caused by Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus flavus. This study was proceeded to document the clinical signs and lesions of Aspergillosis in artificially breeding black swan in DPR Korea, isolate and identify the causative fungi from lesions. Black swans at Swan Breeding Center in Taedong County, South Pyongan Province, DPR Korea were investigated. The infected swans died suddenly after two or three days when they lost appetite and had symptoms of dyspnea, sudden retraction or deformity of their neck and abnormal walking. The infected black swans had white fecal diarrhea. The fungal hyphae were also observed in the eyes.

Here, we confirmed the clinical cases of Aspergillosis in artificially breeding black swans in DPR Korea and A. flavus was isolated in Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and identified morphologically from fungi cultivated in Malt Extract Agar (MEA), Czapek Yeast Extract Agar (CYA) and Czapek Dox Agar (CZ). The morphological characteristics like colony colors were similar with the findings of who isolated Aspergillus flavus from maize and soil in Kenya. The microscopic characteristics of fungus isolated from aspergillosis lesions in Black swans were investigated. The morphologically identified fungus was confirmed as A. flavus by sequencing of PCR product of 600bp fragment with primers ITS1/ITS4 and Blast analysis.