Abstract: One to three week old pigeons from a farm in Chongqing had large pieces of cheese-like substances in their throats, causing pigeons' throats to be blocked, resulting in inability to eat and death in succession. The purpose of this study was to identify the pathogens that caused the disease of a large number of young pigeons. The pathogen was isolated from the throat, crop, glandular stomach and intestines of diseased pigeons. The samples were collected from the throat, crop, glandular stomach and intestines of diseased pigeons, and inoculated on PDA plates containing 1% gentamicin to isolated pathogens. Pathogens were identified by gram staining, cotton blue staining, germ tube test, and PCR amplification. Animal regression test and antifungal susceptibility were carried out. Eight gram-positive yeast-like cells with oval, black or purple pink color were isolated from 5 diseased pigeons. The results of cotton blue staining showed that mycelia and spores grew from the isolates. These isolates were milky white smooth colonies with neat edges on PDA plates containing 1% gentamicin. When incubated in fetal bovine serum, they can grow into germ tubes. Transcriptional spacer sequence of Candida albicans specific rDNA genes were amplified from the isolates. The results of animal regression test showed that the isolated strains causes swelling of crops, and the degeneration, necrosis and abscission of crops' squamous epithelial cells. The antifungal susceptibility testing showed that the isolates were susceptible to amphotericin B, nystatin and clotrimazole. In this study, Candida albicans was identified as the pathogen of pigeons at a pigeon farm in Chongqing, and the Candida albicans isolates were susceptible to some antifungal drugs in vitro.

Key words: Candida albicans, morphological identification, antifungal susceptibility, minimum inhibitory concentration