Common Diseases of Farm Animals

by Robert Alexander Craig

The treatment is both preventive and curative. The preventive treatment consists in quarantining newly purchased birds until we are satisfied that they are free from disease. The occasional disinfection of the poultry houses and runs is highly important. Cleaning the poultry house by removing the floor, roosts, or any part of the house for the purpose of removing all filth, and spraying the interior with a three per cent water solution of a cresol disinfectant, should be practised. Lime should be scattered over the runs, or the yards immediately about the house. The above preventive measures form an important part of the care and management of the flock. The carcasses of the dead birds should be burned. It is advisable to kill all birds that are fatally sick.

All of the flock should be given antiseptics with the feed and water. Four ounces of a water solution of copper sulfate, made by dissolving one-quarter pound of this drug in one gallon of hot water, may be added to each gallon of drinking water. Frequent disinfection of the drinking fountains, feeding places and houses should be practised.

DISEASES RESEMBLING FOWL CHOLERA.—There are a few diseases, such as septicaemia, limber neck and infectious enteritis, that are sometimes mistaken for fowl cholera. These diseases are caused by different microorganisms that may be found in the digestive tract and air-passages of healthy birds, insanitary conditions and decomposed feed, especially meat. It seems that under certain conditions, such as insanitary quarters and birds that are low in constitutional vigor and weakened from other causes, certain germs may become disease-producers. The death rate from mixed infections is very heavy in poultry.

The symptoms vary in the different cases. The disease may be highly acute, as in limber neck, or chronic, extending over a period of a week or more. Diarrhoea is not a prominent symptom in the majority of cases.

The post-mortem lesions vary from a hemorrhagic to a chronic inflammation of the different body organs and serous membranes.

The treatment is preventive. A frequent cleaning and disinfecting of the poultry house and surroundings, avoiding the feeding of spoiled feed, or allowing the drinking fountains and feeding places to become filthy, are effective preventive measures. Sick birds should be either isolated and quarantined, or destroyed. Antiseptics may be given with the feed and drinking water.

AVIAN DIPHTHERIA (ROUP).—This infectious disease of poultry is especially common in chickens. It is characterized by a catarrhal and diphtheritic inflammation of the mucous membranes of the head.

The specific cause of roup has not been determined. The disease-producing germs are present in the discharges from the nostrils, eyes and mouth, and the body excretions of sick birds. Birds having a mild form of roup, or that have recently recovered from it, are common carriers of the disease. The disease is usually introduced into the flock by allowing birds exposed at poultry shows, or recently purchased breeding stock from an infected flock, to mix with the healthy birds.

The predisposing causes are very important factors in the development of roup. Cold, damp, draughty, poorly ventilated poultry houses cause the disease to spread rapidly and become highly acute.

The symptoms differ in character in the different outbreaks of the disease. Usually the first symptoms noticed are sneezing, dulness, diminished appetite and a watery discharge from the nostrils and eyes. Later the eyelids may become swollen and the nostrils plugged by the discharge from the inflamed membranes. If the mouth is examined at this time, an accumulation of mucus and patches of diphtheritic or false membranes are found. In the acute form of roup the false membranes and yellowish, cheesy-like material accumulate on the different mucous membranes, and interfere with vision, breathing and digestion. The affected bird becomes thin and weak. The death rate is very high in this form of the disease.