448 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Cause of the trouble.— This comes from certain small worms that are 

 picked up by the young turkeys in places that have become infested with 

 them. Some believe that the angleworm is the cause of the spreading of 

 gapes, and it probably is one of the causes. It is possible for the angle- 

 worm or other worms to be infested with gapeworms, and thus, when 

 eaten, to cause the gapes in young chickens and turkeys. Whenever the 

 ground is infested with the gapeworm eggs they may readily infest all the 

 angleworms in the same soil, and the eating of these may cause the infesta- 

 tion of the young poults. 



Treatment.— }^l2iMy remedies are recommended for this ailment, few of 

 which have ever proven of much advantage. A feather or a twisted horse 

 hair may be introduced into the windpipe for the removal of the gapeworms. 

 Some recommend the feeding of finely chopped garlic and of turpentine in 

 the mash, while others suggest the mixing of a teaspoonful of naphtha or 

 benzene in enough mixed food for a dozen poults. The theory of the use of 

 these remedies is that the fumes from the turpentine or the benzine will pass 

 through the entire body and into the windpipe and destroy the gapeworm. 



These remedies are known to have destroyed as well as to have cured, 

 and great percaution must be observed in their administration; try them on 

 a few at a time and do not risk the destruction of the whole flock. Another 

 remedy is to place the ailing chicks in a box over which has been stretched 

 some cheese cloth; take some very dry air-slacked lime and sift it down onto 

 the poults or chicks through the cheese cloth; this fine dust will penetrate the 

 nostrils and throat and cause a violent coughing and sneezing, which tends 

 to dislodge the gapeworms and give relief. It is, however, a dangerous 

 remedy which should be cautiously used rather as an experiment than as an 

 absolute. cure. 



Prevention.— '^o saying could be more truly applied to this ailment than 

 ' 'a pound of prevention is worth a ton of cure," and cleanliness is the only 

 sure preventive of gapes. Where the ground has become infested, a very 

 thin coating of slacked lime should be scattered all over it early in the spring 

 before the frost is out of the ground and allowed to lie there until the frost 

 disappears, leaving the ground almost dry; then take a hoe and scrape off 

 all the lime and one-half inch of the soil, cart it away, and bury it at least 

 four feet under ground. 



Another plan is to sprinkle the soil with water into which has been mixed 

 some sulphuric acid; after twenty-four hours cover the surface with lime and 

 turn the soil under with a plow. A surer and better way than this is to re- 

 move your poultry plant to an entirely new part of the farm where there is 

 no danger of infestation, then spread a coating of lime over the infected land 

 and plow it under and cultivate it for a year or two. 



Examinations made by opening the windpipes of dressed turkeys during 

 the winter have frequently revealed the presence of two, three or four gape- 

 worms attached to the lining membrane of the windpipe; thus is shown the 

 possibility of carrying the infection over in grown birds, which must like- 

 wise be provided against. The grown turkey might be carefully subjected 

 to the lime-dust treatment as above, to produce coughing or sneezing; and 

 some of the mucus may be taken from the throat with a fine platinum loop 

 and examined under the microscope for worm eggs. Those showing evi- 

 dence of the presence of the worms should be kept isolated and treated until 

 they are known to be free of the worms. 



