Pathological and anatomical diagnosis of an ostrich spontaneou death (clinical case)

Abstract

Ostriches tolerate extreme environmental conditions well. The reserve of their adaptive abilities is very high. These birds retain heat well in cold weather, covering their large legs with their large feathers, as well as in the heat, fl uttering them to create coolness. As the experience of keeping ostriches on farms in Europe and Ukraine shows, they can withstand temperature to -15 °С, and in the African deserts- temperatures up to +56 °С. Therefore, given the climatic conditions in Ukraine, this branch of poultry, in fact, has the right to be realized and profi table. Due to the growth and development of ostrich farms in Ukraine and the signifi cant lack of literature about the diseases of these birds, which are kept in private farms, zoos, the result of this study will be useful to get a general idea of the digestive system of ostriches and possible pathology, which is related to anatomical features of the digestive system of these birds. The ostrich autopsy was performed in the section hall of the Department of Anatomy and Histology of Polissya National University. Morphological data were analyzed and discussed to establish the etiology of the disease, postmortem diagnosis and cause of the animal’s death. Analyzing the results, it can be argued that the animal died as a result of hypothermia (as much of its body was deprived of feathers) and feeding it large, hard pieces of food, including fodder beets. The autopsy revealed a signifi cant overfl ow of the stomach with feed masses, a large number of stones, leaves, grass and large pieces of undigested beets, blockage of the pyloric orifi ce, which led to acute gastric enlargement, resulting in acute venous stasis in the lungs and liver, developed pulmonary and brain edema. The animal death occurred as a result of asphyxia. The results of the research can be used for comparative pathology of diseases of this species of birds.

Keywords

• ostrich
• stomach
• pyloric orifi ce
• intestine
• lungs
• liver
• kidneys
• venous stasis.