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SIR, - Infection with Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium is a common cause of thickening, ulceration and necrosis of the oesophagus and crop of wild finches of the family Fringillidae ( Pennycott and others 1998 ), with most cases occurring between January and April ( Pennycott and others 2002 ). Profuse growths of S Typhimurium can be cultured from the viscera of affected birds.
Over the past year we have encountered several instances of deaths in chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs ) and greenfinches (Carduelis chloris ) in which a necrotic ingluvitis was apparent at postmortem examination, similar to that seen in finches with salmonellosis but from which no significant bacteria or yeasts could be cultured. Affected birds included a greenfinch in October 2004, a chaffinch in April 2005, two greenfinches in June 2005, two chaffinches and a greenfinch in July 2005, and four greenfinches and a chaffinch in August 2005. The birds were submitted from eight sites in Scotland and England.
Gross lesions on the mucosa of the oesophagus and crop varied from small, focal, yellow nodules, 2 to 4 mm in diameter, to a more diffuse yellow-orange...