Recent advantages in our knowledge and control of game-bird diseases.

Abstract

In 1958 Clapham wrote that the scourge of coccidiosis (Eimeria sp. infection) had been beaten by the advent of sulphonamide drugs. However, she was less happy about the problem of gapeworm (Syngamus frachea) infestation for which there was no practicable treatment, and she found strongylosis (Trichostrongylus tenuis infection) troublesome in partridges (Perdix perdix) but made no mention of blackhead (Histomonas meleagridis infection) or Moniliasis (Candida albicans infection). Indeed, the first recorded outbreak of Moniliasis in partridges took place a few months after Clapham's article (Keymer & Austwick 1961).

Now, nine years later, in the birds examined for the Game Research Association's survey of game bird diseases (Jones 1964, 1965, 1966, Jones & Wood 1967) the picture is almost completely reversed. Coccidiosis still is the cause of death of more hand-reared pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) than any other disease, and moniliasis is the major problem in partridge rearing in Great Britain. Although strongylosis is a minor problem, blackhead is the second most common  disease in both pheasants and partridges. Gapes, while still important, can be controlled in both penned and released birds which are still being fed in covert.