It would seem that the cæca of birds, like the vermiform appendix of man is very subject to invasion microbes, bacterian and protozoan, and should always be carefully examined in case of intestinal or hepatic disorder.
Treatment would be in the line of intestinal antisepsis with carbolic acid, salol, sulphurous acid, or the sulphites, with a laxative of castor oil, to carry these agents unchanged to the cæca, but no success has attended attempts in this direction, and the danger that comes from preservation of the infected animal, and consequent multiplication of the microbe would as a rule far more than counterbalance any probable recoveries.
Prevention. Moore has shown that the amœbæ, passed with the fæces, contaminate the food and water and thus actively propagate the disease, so that preventive measures must be mainly directed toward the purification of these infecting media. To be thorough new ground must be secured on which no diseased turkeys have been, and through which no water from contaminated or suspected land can flow; if necessary this must be closely fenced to prevent all ingress or egress, and on this ground we can place, as soon as they leave the shell, young turkeys hatched from eggs obtained in noninfected localities, or the eggs carefully washed of the turkeys living on infected ground. In this way the heredity and quality of the flock can be preserved without risk of contamination from the parents. The amœba is not known as a parasite of other birds, but if it should eventually be found to be so or to occupy any other animal body as an intermediate host, the local extermination of such host will become a necessary precaution.
When a new flock has been started in this way, the birds of the old flock may be fattened, killed and marketed, and as suggested by Cooper Curtice the grounds they have occupied may be secluded by fencing for one or two years, in the hope that the amœba will perish by this break in the chain of its life history. If this should prove successful with the land, the infection might be easily exterminated in the whole infected district or state.
The poultry buildings will require thorough disinfection. All manure and droppings must be carefully removed and the building whitewashed, using freshly burned quicklime and ¼ lb. of chloride of lime to the gallon of the mixture. The litter should be burned, and all nests, roosts, drinking vessels and troughs soaked with a mixture of sulphuric acid ½ gallon, carbolic acid ½ gallon, and water 20 gallons, (Th. Smith). The agents are mixed slowly in a vessel set in cold water. The same may be liberally applied on the surface, fences, etc., of the yards. Or quicklime, freshly burned, may be used freely on the yards holding the infected flocks (Moore). Mercuric chloride is dangerous. When the infected flock has been finally disposed of, the buildings and yards should be again thoroughly disinfected, and together with the field runs, abandoned for at least one year.
ASTHENIA IN CHICKENS.
Microbiology: bacillus of colon group. Pathogenesis to Guinea pigs: rabbits, pigeons and chickens refractory to artificial cultures. Treatment.
Synonym. “Going Light,” Bacterial Infection of the Duodenum.
C. F. Dawson, in investigating a wasting disease of well fed Brahma fowls in Maryland in which there was no appreciable symptom except the gradual and extreme loss of flesh and weight found in all cases a catarrhal duodenitis, with the presence in the contents of a bacterium in pure cultures, and apparently allied to bacillus coli communis.
Bacteriology. The bacterium is 1 to 1.3μ long, by .5μ wide, with rounded ends, often in pairs. It does not stain in acid nor alkaline methylene blue, carbol fuchsin, nor alcoholic dyes, but stains easily in aqueous solutions of the same stains and by Gram’s method. It is ærobic, facultative anærobic, grows at 50° to 120° F. in acid or alkaline beef bouillon, with fœtor; in glucose, saccharose, or lactose bouillon with the production of acid; in milk causing coagulation; on gelatine, agar and potato. Growth in Bouillon ceased at 131° F. and sterilization took place at 135° to 140° F. Vitality was not lost under freezing nor drying. It was killed by a 1 per cent. solution of carbolic acid in five minutes, or by formaldehyde gas, but not by lime water.