THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS AND AILMENTS 



to affect them when about six weeks old, and the malady 

 is so virulent that they die with apoplectic suddenness, not 

 singly, but numbers are picked up in the daily rounds in 

 a dead and dying condition. Where extensive Pheasant- 

 rearing operations are carried on several thousands of the 

 poults may be cleared off through this cholera - like 

 affection. 



Infectious enteric, the prefix being used in order to 

 distinguish the malady from enteritis arising from other 

 causes of a non-infective nature, presents certain classical 

 features which at once render it distinctive, and these may 

 be summarised as follows : — 



(a) Suddenness of attack. 



(d) That a number of birds are simultaneously 

 affected. 



(c) The high percentage of deaths. 



(d) The rapid manner in which the malady spreads 



from the diseased to the healthy. 



(<?) Diarrhoea or scour so constantly accompanying 

 this trouble and materially aiding in its dis- 

 semination on the rearing-field. 



(/) The liability towards a recurrence of the affection 

 in succeeding years, when birds are reared 

 upon the same ground. Both living and 

 dead chicks appear to be capable of acting 

 as sources of infection, hence the necessity 

 for either deep burial or else destruction by 

 fire of the dead birds. 



Any careless disposal of the latter is very liable to be 

 followed by perpetuation of this malady, a fact which it is 

 impossible to insist too strongly upon. It is negligence in 



265 



