In total, 985 livers were collected from 275 backyard waterfowl farms distributed in seven provinces of southern China. The virus that was most commonly isolated was avian influenza virus, with a 12.1% positivity rate. Of the other positive samples, 10.6% tested positive for avian Tembusu virus, 6.8% for duck hepatitis A virus, 3.8% for duck plague virus, 3.4% for Muscovy duck parvovirus, 3.1% for goose parvovirus, 1.0% for mycoplasma and 0.9% for respiratory enteric orphan virus. The bacterium that was most commonly isolated was Escherichia coli, with a 47.1% positivity rate. This survey suggests that backyard waterfowl in southern China could be an important vector for the storage, variation, and transmission of various pathogens.
Keywords: backyard farms; liver; microbiological identification; waterfowl.