A bacteriologic study of scabby-hip lesions from broiler chickens in Texas

Broilers from commercial flocks experiencing a 10-60% incidence of scabby-hip lesions at processing were examined, and selected skin lesions were cultured. Over 70% of the lesions were associated with traumatic excoriations, particularly on the caudal dorsal convexity of the birds. Most lesions were observed on birds that were 5 weeks of age or older. From the 27 specimens cultured, Clostridium perfringens was isolated in pure culture from 4 lesions and Staphylococcus species from 10 lesions. Pure cultures of staphylococci were recovered from 4 lesions, and 2-5 different staphylococci were isolated from 6 lesions. Eight staphylococci were identified as S. sciuri, 8 as S. simulans, 2 as S. epidermidis, 2 as S. lentus, 2 as S. warneri, 1 as S. cohnii, and 1 as S. intermedius. Fifty cutaneous specimens from 10 5-week-old normal broilers were cultured. A total of 197 isolates were identified including 65 S. sciuri, 52 S. lentus, 24 S. simulans, 12 S. hyicus, 11 S. warneri, 9 S. cohnii, 9 S. gallinarium, 8 S. xylosus, and 7 S. epidermidis.