RENAL PATHOLOGY IN SPECIFIC-PATHOGEN-FREE CHICKENS INOCULATED WITH A WATERFOWL-ORIGIN TYPE-A INFLUENZA-VIRUS

Five-week-old specific-pathogen-free chickens inoculated intravenously with a waterfowl-origin type A influenza virus (A/mallard/Ohio/184/86) had swollen and mottled kidneys on days 3, 5, and 7 postinoculation (PI) and multiple raised nodules on days 5, 10, and 20 PI. Histologically, the kidneys had multifocal heterophilic tubulointerstitial nephritis with epithelial necrosis on day 3 PI, lymphoplasmacytic tubulointerstitial nephritis on day 5 PI, and fibrosing interstitial nephritis with cortical lobular collapse, atrophic tubules, glomerular aggregates, and interstitial lymphoid follicles and aggregates on days 7, 10, and 20 PI. Heterophilic intratubular medullary-cone nephritis was present in dead or moribund chickens on days 3 and 5 PI. Furthermore, the presence of mild multifocal heterophilic tubulointerstitial nephritis on day 20 PI suggests that a waterfowl-origin strain of type A influenza virus of low pathogenicity has the potential to produce acute and chronic active nephritis in the chicken and that the kidney is a potential site for influenza viral persistence. The acute, subacute, and chronic histopathologic renal lesions of this influenza virus in chickens are similar to lesions reported for some nephropathogenic infectious bronchitis viruses and avian nephritis picornavirus.