author(s)
G Rajarajan and P Senthil Kumar

abstract
Colibacillosis is an economically important bacterial infection in emu birds. A case study was conducted in the emu chicks reared under uniform management condition. Some of the emu chicks were exhibited clinical signs of anorexia, dullness, reluctant to move, respiratory distress and dyspnoea. Two emu chicks were found dead at the age of 32 and 47 days old respectively. Necropsy was conducted on dead chicks and the gross lesions were recorded. On necropsy, the emu chicks were found with air sacculitis, pericarditis, perihepatitis, congestion of proventriculus and gizzard. The exudates from lungs, peritoneal fluid and heart blood swab were collected from the affected birds and causative organism was isolated. The pure culture of Escherichia coli was isolated from the peritoneal fluid collected from the affected emu bird. The remaining affected birds were treated with Enrofloxacin at a dose rate of 10 mg/kg body weight through drinking water for five days and witnessed remarkable survival from colibacillosis infection.