Find in Library

<i>Trichomonas gallinae</i> (<i>T. gallinae</i>) is a flagellated protozoan and the causative agent of trichomoniasis, or canker, in birds. In the current study, the prevalence of <i>T. gallinae</i> was firstly investigated in five breeds. According to the results of the prevalence study, White King pigeons were selected as the experimental animals. A total of 135 White King squabs at one day of age were randomly divided into two groups and raised in separate isolators. The challenged group (N = 100) was challenged intranasally with 5 × 10⁶ parasites/mL of the <i>T. gallinae</i> strain, and the control group (N = 35) was intranasally administered medium of equivalent volume. At 1, 2, 3 and 5 days post infection (DPIs), the crops and esophagi were collected for RNA extraction and formaldehyde fixation. The results showed that prevalence of <i>T. gallinae</i> in the five breeds ranged from 27.13% (White Carneau) to 43.14% (White King). After the challenge, mild microscopic lesions were observed in both tissues. Apoptosis rates were higher in the challenged group than in the control group at 2 and 5 DPIs in the crop and at 1, 2 and 7 DPIs in the esophagus. For both tissues, relative expression of <i>IL-1β</i> increased dramatically at the beginning and decreased at 5 DPIs, and <i>TGF-β</i> increased stably in the challenged group.