172 FowEL Cholera 



POULTRY DEPARTMENT 



FOWL CHOLERA 



Fowl cholera is caused by a specific germ, visible under the high 

 powered microscope. It is passed from the diseased bird with the bowel 

 passages, and from such infected pens or yards, healthy birds develop the 

 disease, as the germs are picked up with the food. Most any fowl will 

 take poultry cholera and hence pigeons or other birds might carry it from 

 farm to farm by their droppings. However, it is probable most of the 

 cholera is carried by human beings the same as hog cholera. People 

 get curious to see how fowls act with cholera and go to see their neigh- 

 bors sick birds and carry the infection home to their healthy birds on 

 their shoes or utensils. Feeding tankage in liberal quantities or a poor 

 grade will often cause bowel disorders. 



SYMPTOMS 



Like hog cholera a number may die off in a very few days or the di- 

 sease may linger months killing a bird occasionally. The birds show 

 the first symptoms in the bowel passages which become yellowish, soiling 

 the plumage on the rear of the body. Then the appetite is lost; the crop 

 may retain the food and be distended with gas. The bird develops a 

 diarrhoea which in the last stages of the disease assumes a green color. 

 There is intense thirst and less desire for food. The wings and head 

 droop. After death, blood ruptures can be seen along the digestive tract 

 which are often as large as a pin head. 



PREVENTION 



Stay away from cholera pens and yards. If it gets into your flock, 

 shut the birds up as soon as they show yellow diarrhoea and use a pair 

 of overshoes to enter the cholera pen with and remove them as you leave 

 the pen. This is to prevent carrying infection to healthy fowls. Do not 

 use pans or troughs of the cholera pen in a well pen. Keep straw in 

 the cholera pen and shelter, and burn all straw in pen. If cholera 



