Coccidian Enteritis in Birds. 263 



in which the latter have been. The greatest care must be taken 

 to prevent them from obtaining access to the droppings of the sick, 

 or to streams, ponds or wells, into which the drainage from such 

 manure can have found its way. The safest course is to destroy 

 the sick and burn up them and all their droppings, as the latter 

 ground into powder can blow on the wind. 



Therapeutic treatment has proved unsatisfactory but may be 

 attempted along the same lines as for the larger animals. 



COCCIDIAN ENTERITIS IN BIRDS. INTESTINAL 

 COCCIDIOSIS. 



Two sporozoa are known to be pathogenic in the intestines of 

 birds : the coccidium tenellum and the gregarina avium 

 intestinalis. 



Coccidium Tenellum. This has a nearly globular body 21 

 to 25 mm. long by 17 to 19 mm. broad, a very thin, delicate in- 

 vesting membrane, and has been found in the mucosa of the cgeca 

 of birds, producing a fatal typhlitis. The sporoblasts are de- 

 veloped in water outside the animal body and when taken in with 

 the food colonize in the intestinal mucosa. 



Gregarina Avium Intestinalis. When mature this is in 

 form of a granular body with hollow spaces or utricles, is oval, or 

 globular and measures 40 to 48 /a in diameter. The spores are 11 

 to 14 /A. They are found in the submucosa of the intestines in 

 chickens, being taken in with food or water, and attack not the 

 intestines only but the skin, the buccal and pharyngeal mucosa 

 and even tlie liver and lungs. They traverse the mucous mem- 

 brane and become encysted in the submucosa as white isolated or 

 confluent points, disturbing the circulation and nutrition and 

 destroying the nutritive and other functional activities of the 

 mucosa. 



Lesions. From the coccidium tenellum these are mainly found 

 in the caeca and consist in intense inflammation, white lines 

 formed by the parasitic colonies, desquamations of the epithelium 

 and erosions and ulcers. In the early stages and in the absence 

 of diarrhoea there may be simply thickening and induration of 



