CHAPTER XXXIII 

 Specific Diseases 



Roup 



This is a specific catarrhal affection affecting Pheasants, 

 domestic and other fowls, and one that is readily transferred 

 from the latter to the former, and there is no doubt that many 

 attacks of roup in pheasantries are brought into them by 

 fowls which have been previously infected. In some respects 

 this affection is analogous to distemper in the dog, with, 

 of course, its symptoms modified in accordance with the 

 anatomical construction of birds and mammals. In some 

 establishments this affection is constantly present, although 

 it may exist in its dormant form ready to revive whenever 

 conditions favourable to such present themselves. A wet 

 season and badly drained ground must be looked upon as 

 predisposing influences in the production of roup, though, 

 accepting the dictum that it is a specific or micro-organismal 

 disease, it would be impossible for roup to occur amongst 

 Pheasants unless infection — direct or indirect — had been 

 brought into the pheasantry. It is a most troublesome 

 complaint to eradicate, and rapidly spreads from bird to 

 bird irrespective of age, sex or breed ; nevertheless, it is a 

 disease that can, by carefully adjusted measures, be curtailed 

 in its spread, though, unfortunately, it is generally allowed 

 to disseminate through the carelessness of the attendant. 

 Various forms of roup have been described from time to 

 time by writers on the subject, who have been mainly guided 



251 



