Chlamydiosis in a captive group of Houbara bustards (Chlamydotis undulata).

A chlamydiosis outbreak occurred in a Houbara bustard (Chlamydotis undulata) captive breeding group in Saudi Arabia, inducing peracute deaths, highly variable clinical signs, and pathological and histological lesions. Typical inclusion bodies in stained impression smears of spleen and prevalence (80%) of antibodies against Chlamydia, detected by a competitive enzyme immunoassay test, provided the bases for the diagnosis. This is the first report on a chlamydiosis outbreak in birds of the family Otididae.