ABSTRACT
Duck plague is an acute highly contagious disease of duck, geese and swan of all ages caused by Anatid Herpesvirus-1. The disease is characterized by significant decrease in growth, egg production and sudden death along with high morbidity and mortality which results into significant economic losses in duck industry. In present study, the pathology of wild strain (DP/As-Km/0019) of duck plague virus (DPV) was experimentally studied in 2 months old ducklings. The prominent clinical signs observed were depression, loss of appetite, greenish diarrhoea, ruffled feathers, nasal discharge, lacrimation and pasted eyelids with periorbital ring formation. The significant gross lesions were observed in spleen, oesophagus, liver, heart, brain and intestine. Vascular and degenerative changes like congestion, haemorrhages, necrosis and diphtheritic membrane formation were noticed in various parenchymatous organs. Microscopically, focal to diffuse areas of haemorrhages, coagulative necrosis, and fatty changes in liver, focal emphysema in lungs, formation of diphtheritic membrane on the mucosal surface along with presence of numerous infiltrating cells in oesophagus were recorded. Presence of Anatid Herpesvirus-1 viral DNA in liver and spleen tissue samples was detected by PCR.