Author
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Richard, John |
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Dvorak, Timothy |
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ROSS, P - APHIS, AMES, IA |
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Submitted to: Mycopathologia
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/1996 Publication Date: N/A Citation: N/A Interpretive Summary: Gliotoxin, a fungal toxin that suppresses the immune system, is produced in culture by the agent of a severe respiratory disease of turkey poults. Previously, we proved that this mycotoxin could be produced during the infectious state of this organism in experimentally inoculated turkeys. Now we have found that this toxin occurs naturally in turkeys infected with this organism as evidenced by our analysis of infected tissue from turkeys that were notably infected during meat inspections at a processing plant. Control of this devastating disease in poultry could be related to the gliotoxin-producing capacity of the causative fungus because the toxin is potentially involved also in the disease producing capacity of the fungus. Technical Abstract: Thirteen samples of infected turkey lung tissue from cases of "airsacculitis" was collected either at the processing plant or from a local turkey farm and subjected to cultural and gliotoxin analysis. Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated from 6 of the 13 samples and all isolates were determined to be gliotoxin producers when grown in laboratory culture and assayed by HPLC procedures. Gliotoxin was isolated from 5 of the 13 tissues but was not isolated from all tissues that were infected with A. fumigatus. Gliotoxin was isolated from two tissues from which there was no isolation of A. fumigatus, and it was not detected in three tissues from which gliotoxin- producing isolates of A. fumigatus were obtained. The ability of this pathogenic fungus to produce this immunosuppressive compound in naturally infected turkeys provides further evidence that gliotoxin may be involved in the pathogenesis of the disease, aspergillosis of turkeys. |
