FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 733 



the disease is accompanied by fever, rapid loss of flesli, and prostration, 

 and frequently causes the death of the victim. In the most malignant 

 cases, especially with pigeons, the eruption extends to the mucous 

 membranes of the eyes, nostrils, and mouth, causing a diphtheritic in- 

 flammation that Is generally fatal. 



Treatvient. — The mild cases of this disease may be successfully treated 

 by simple local applications. The crusts on the nodules are softened 

 with carbolated ointment, glycerin, or oil, and after an hour or two 

 removed by washing with warm water containing a little soap. The 

 denuded tissue is then treated with a 2 per cent solution of creolin or 

 lysol, or with a saturated solution of boric acid. Some prefer carbolated 

 oil or carbolated ointment to watery solutions; others apply tincture 

 of iodine. If there is much inflammation of the eyes, apply frequently 

 with a medicine dropper or a pledget of absorbent cotton a solu- 

 tion made by dissolving li/4 ounces boric acid and 1 ounce biborate 

 soda in a quart of warm water. This solution may also be applied to 

 the inflamed skin either before or after the crusts are removed. 



As this disease is contagious', the houses, drinking vessels, and feed 

 troughs should be kept disinfected during the outbreak and for some 

 days after all the birds have apparently recovered. 



BLACKHEAD (ENTEKO-HEPATITIS ) . 



This is a disease of the intestines and liver, which is most frequent 

 with and most injurious to turkeys, but which also attacks common 

 fowls. In the course of this disease the head often becomes dark colored 

 or nearly black, and for that reason it is popularly known as "black- 

 head," although it is only the internal organs that are attacked by the 

 parasitic microbe. The cause of the disease is a protozoal organism 

 called Amocha mcleagridis, the ameba of turkeys. The contagion is 

 widely disseminated and in some localities has made the production of 

 turkey nearly impossible. 



Causation. — The ameba leaves the bodies of the sick birds with the 

 excrement and infects other birds by entering the digestive organs with 

 the food and drink. It passes along the alimentary canal until it ar- 

 rives at the two blind pouches or lateral extensions called the ceca, where 

 it begins its growth and produces the first signs of disease. Here it 

 penetrates the lining membrane, increases rapidly in numbers, and sets 

 up an inflammatory process which leads to a great thickening of the in- 

 testinal wall and to the filling up and obstruction of the tube with an 

 accumulation of yellowish white or grayish cheesy material that is de- 

 posited in concentric layers. 



The changes which are almost constantly found in the liver are ex- 

 plained by the assuming that the microbes are carried by the blood from 

 the diseased ceca to the liver, and are there deposited at different points, 

 where they multiply and spread in all direct-ions. In this way are 

 formed the numerous centers of disease which appears on the surface of 

 the liver as yellowish spots, but which when cut across are seen to be 

 irregularly spherical in shape. The ameba are liberated in large num- 

 bers both in the ceca and in the liver, are mixed with the intestinal con- 

 tents, and arc distributed with the droppings. 



