98 SFIKOCHJETOSIS OK srUANESE FOWLS 



I am pLTsimdi'il the lii'i- act mtTcly a» iiR'rhaiiical traiiMiiittLT.-, ami 1 du not think thuv play any great part 

 iu till' spread nf tlio disease. It is true, however, that more dis,sectious are reniiired, for one should not 

 geiienilise on a eoin])iinitively small numl>er o£ oliservations. 



Pigeons not (6) Pigeons do not seem to be susceptible to this form of spirochsetosis, as proved 



susccpii ic jjy several inoculation experiments. Intra-corpuscuhir bodies have never been found in 

 the blood of these birds, nor have they ever been found sutt'ering naturally from 

 spirochtetosis, although kept in close proximity to infected fowls, and, no doubt, frequently 

 bitten by infective fowl ticks. This tends to show that the Sudan spirochtEte is a specific 

 entity or at least that it is not Sp. iiiarchou.ri. I have not been able to carry out the cross- 

 inoculations advocated by Laveran for the determination of specificity in trypanosomiasis 

 and in any case I doubt the value of this method in spirochastosis. Possibly Levaditi's' 

 new "attachment method" may find a use in the latter form of infection. 



As mentioned in our Third Keport, geose are susceptible to the disease. They suli'er 

 from it naturally, and of special interest is the fact that in them the corpuscular inclusions 

 are associated with the spirochaites just as in fowls. Indeed, it was the presence of the 

 former in geese that led me to look for and find the latter, and so prove the condition 

 to be a spirochastal septicaemia. 



Dr. Wenyon also found guinea-fowls on the White Nile suS'ering from spirochaitosis, 

 but did not observe any inclusions in their red cells. 



I was not able to procure any ducks, and it scarcely seemed necessary to inoculate 

 wild birds on a large scale, as it would have served no useful purpose. 



However, a water-wagtail, Motatilla alha, was obtained, and received an injection of 

 spirochaJtal blood on January 25, 1911. Nothing was found iu the blood up to January 28, 

 on the morning of which day the bird was found dead. No spirochtetal infection found. 

 A small bird, I'asser rufidorsalis, the local species of house sparrow, also gave a negative 

 result. Here, perhaps, one may mention that further oljservations on gerbils prove them 

 to be immune to infection. 

 Blood changes (7) Blood changes ill infected chicks. Some of these were mentioned in our Third 



Eeport, and I do not think there is umeh else to record. In the accompanying severe 

 amemia the red cells may be greatly changed and, in smears, may be found spindle-shaped 

 and niiims their nuclei. As mentioned in the paper on Blood Fallacies (pnyi- 115j, the 

 leucocytes may, as a result of degeneration, show most curious changes. Kurloff's bodies 

 and plasmosomes are sometimes found in them and myelocytes nmy be present in the 

 blood. Fleeting leukccmic conditions are not uncommon as are increases in the number of 

 the thrombocytes, which are sometimes found in huge masses. These interesting cells may 

 also contain inclusions. The latter may be the " deeply staining (deep purple with Wright's 

 stain) bodies about the size of, or somewhat larger than, a mast cell granule " mentioned 

 by Burnett, and which he believes to be a sign of degeneration. I do not know what they 

 are and have but rarely seen them. The same is true of the large rose-pink bodies found 

 in the leucocytes of chick V. (pui/e 87^. 



(8) Tlierapeulic measures. — In the Sudan, at present, these can only, I fear, iui\e 

 a scientific interest, for the native, who alone keeps and breeds fowls on a large scale, is 

 so careless and apathetic that he would never trouble his head about prevention or 

 treatment. If his fowls die, it is the will of God, if they are ill and recover, to Allah be 

 Treatment the praise, and this fatalism is hard to overcome. As an example one may mention what 

 occurred when, in order to try and get the fowl vendors in the Khartoum market to mend 

 their ways and to look after their birds, one ofifered some substantial (from the native 



■ IiCvaditi, C, and Mutermilch, S. (1910), " Diagnostic dcsTrypauosomiatiCS par Ic Phcuoni^ue de rattacbineut." 

 Ctmpt. Jlend. Soc. Biol., Vol. LXIX, No. 3S. 



in infected 

 chicks 



