Babu Prasath NSelvaraj JVelusamy RTANUVAS2024-07-182024-07-182024https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810212231A desi chicken fl ock (3 months old) had 2% mortality every week with a history of stunted growth. Birds were supplemented with antibiotics from the fi rst week of hatch. Postmortem examination was carried out on a carcass. Carcass was pale and thin. Crop mucosa was covered with thin, whitish papery layer with sca ered erosions. The mucosa also revealed an irregular corrugated fi rm growth protruding into the lumen. Cytology revealed narrow budding yeasts and numerous fl agellated protozoa. Histologically, crop revealed epithelial hyperplasia with papillary projections. Hyperplastic epithelial layer showed ballooning degeneration of cells and infl ammatory infi ltrations. Histochemistry showed Candida albicans with PAS stain and Trichomonas gallinae with Giemsa stain. C. albicans exhibited yeast and hyphal forms which occupied superfi cial epithelial cells whereas septate hyphae were found penetrating perpendicular to the mucosa. Giemsa stained tissue section showed varying morphology of Trichomonas gallinae in the lamina propria. This study reporting the chronic and combined infection of dimorphic fungi - Candida albicans and protozoal fl agellate Trichomonas gallinae in a desi chicken due to continuous usage of antibiotics.EnglishArticle