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Division of Animal Industry 



Honolulu, Hawaii, August 21, 1916. 



Board of Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry, 

 Honolulu. 



Gentlemen : — I have the honor to submit the following report 

 for the Division of Animal Industry for July, 1916: 



Sore-head or Chicken Pox. 



The demand for sore-head vaccine continued to increase, more 

 than two thousand doses being distributed or applied to infected 

 flocks during the month, with highly satisfactory results. This 

 method of treatment may now be accepted as safe and eft"ective- 

 with all classes of chickens more than four to five weeks old. 

 Such young birds do not seem to have the resistance or vitality 

 required for the treatment, in fact, they seem to benefit little, if 

 at all, from it. The point is, therefore, to guard the chicks 

 against infection and this can easily be done by keeping them in 

 brooders or boxes raised above the ground. So long as such 

 young birds are not turned out on infected ground they will not 

 easily develop the disease, and if one or more should show 

 symptoms, it will be noticed at once and quick removal will pro- 

 tect the rest, as the disease does not seem to be very contagious 

 until the scabs are ready to drop from the sores. 



A visit to the splendid Minorca breeding plant of Mr. H. F. 

 Fisher, near Olaa, Hawaii, is proof sufficient of the value of 

 sore-head vaccination. It will be remembered from former re- 

 ports, that Mr. Fisher last year lost more than one hundred pullets 

 in less than two weeks, and that he felt convinced he would have 

 lost practically all of the remaining 200, had it not been for the 

 timely application of the vaccine. Mr. Fisher recently was kind 

 enough to place at my disposal 100 head of culls for experimental 

 purposes. These birds had not been vaccinated and. unfortu- 

 nately, the disease broke out among them in a most virulent form 

 so that upon my arrival at Olaa only forty remained alive, and 

 at least half of these were so badly affected as to make them 

 useless for the planned experiments. Among these birds the 

 lesions were, for the first time, observed on both wings and 

 shanks, besides the usual location on head and necks. About 

 twenty-five of the forty survivors were saved by ordinary double 

 vaccination, which, considering the unusual malignant form the 

 disease had assumed must be considered a very good percentage. 

 What would have happened to Mr. Fisher's poultry enterprise, 

 except for the vaccine which had been applied to all of his sev- 



