Aspergillosis in Birds: An Overview of Treatment Options and Regimens

Aside from the therapeutic advantages associated with antimycotic drugs, predisposing factors have to be considered when treating aspergillosis in an avian patient. Predisposing influences can be affected by improving management conditions, thus decreasing the amount of fungal spores in the environment. Moreover, a veterinarian often treats a chronic disease in most cases; therefore, the treatment regimen is typically for months sometimes. The route of administration for the selected therapeutic agent is of great importance and depends on the severity of the disease condition, among other factors. Furthermore, the side effects of the individual drugs may be reduced by selecting different routes of administration. To date, in clinically ill birds, oral or parenteral administration of the drug is performed regularly to achieve a systemic effect. In principle, it would be preferable to use long-term nebulization treatment; however, careful consideration is required when determining the composition of antimycotic formulation. All currently available antimycotic agents that are in the drug market have been developed for use in human medicine. Drug dosages that are recommended for avian medicine are frequently based on the experience of individual researchers or reference values that are derived from other species. Essentially, active substances within the azoles group, as well as some allylamines and polyene antibiotics, are prescribed to avian patients with aspergillosis, with most of the patients currently being treated with azoles. Systemic administration of these compounds is effective when treating most fungal infections that involve the respiratory tract. However, treatment difficulties often occur because of the limited tolerability and the high occurrence of side effects in avian patients who are administered antimycotic drugs.