744 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



needed for hatching on the home farm and from hens that are known 

 to be free from infection. 



Having obtained the eggs, they should be kept until ready for incuba- 

 tion in a dry, moderately cool place, so spread out that the air can 

 circulate over them and carry away the moisture which they exhale. 

 They should not be placed in hay, straw, chaff or other substance 

 liable to become musty or moldy. Before putting them into the incu- 

 bator or under the hen they should be wiped with a cloth wet in grain 

 alcohol of 70 to 80 per cent strength to remove any germs that might be 

 on the surface of the shell. The hens used for hatching should be free 

 from all infection and the incubator should be thoroughly cleaned. If 

 there have been any sick chicks in it, it should be disinfected by wash- 

 ing with compound solution of cresol (5 per cent solution). The same 

 precautions should be adopted in regard to the brooder. 



If the hatching is done by a hen the brood should be put upon fresh 

 ground, and any chicks which sicken should be immediately removed and 

 Isolated or killed. By removing frequently to fresh ground or by fre- 

 quent disinfection the disease may sometimes be limited to a few in- 

 dividuals. 



If the hatching is done in an incubator and there is reason to sus- 

 pect that the disease may develop, it is well to divide the trays a,nd the 

 brooder by light partitions so that not more than 4 or 6 chicks will be 

 in one lot and exposed to each other. If white diarrhea appears in any 

 of these lots, such lots may be removed and the places which they have 

 occupied may be disinfected. After four or five days the partitions may 

 be removed and the healthy lots of chicks put together. In this way 

 the greater part of the chicks are protected against the most common 

 form of the disease. 



Brooder Pneumonia. — This is an inflammation of the lungs caused by 

 the growth of the aspergillus fungus in the smaller air tubes and in the 

 lung tissue. It is believed that it may occur from infection carried 

 within the egg. Whether this infection is derived from the hen or from 

 the material in which the eggs have been packed is not definitely 

 known, but the latter method of infection is the more probable. The fact 

 of the lungs being the principal seat of the infection indicates that the 

 spores in most cases are inhaled with the breath and germinate at or 

 near the points where they are deposited. The inference from this 

 method of infection would be that the incubators or brooders, or both, 

 had been allowed to get filthy and moldy, and that the atmosphere in 

 these was filled with aspergillus spores. 



The symptoms are very similar to those described as present in white 

 diarrhea, but the breathing is more rapid and difficult and is some- 

 times accompanied by sounds due to obstruction of the air tubes. The 

 disease is not generally distinguished from white diarrhea, as this symp- 

 tom (white diarrheal discharges) is usually present in the lung disease 

 as well as in the intestinal infection. 



The sick chickens cannot be cured, and therefore all the efforts must 

 be directed toward prevention. The measures mentioned for the preven- 

 tion of white diarrhea are applicable to brooder pneumonia, but if the 

 disease has once occurred among the chicks especial care must be given 



