48 POULTRY DISEASES 



(heavy, difficult) breathing. Coughing may oc- 

 cur and a rattling of mucus (rales) in the trachea 

 or bronchi may often be heard. 



Postmortem Appearances.— By a careful examina- 

 tion of the infested air sacs or the bronchi and 

 sacules of the lungs, the mites may be found ap- 

 pearing as minute white specks, about the size of 

 the scaly leg parasites. 



For the specimen from which the accompanying 

 drawing (Fig. 12) was made, the author is in- 

 debted to Dr. W. B. Mack, Eeno, Nevada, who ob- 

 tained it from a flock of birds examined in New 

 York. Besides the white specks moving on the 

 surfaces of the air sacs, whitish-yellow points, due 

 to the irritation caused by the parasite, may be 

 found. The bronchi may be congested. In severe 

 cases inflammation or bronchitis, and even pneu- 

 monia, may exist. 



The air-sac mite has also been reported as in- 

 festing the liver, kidneys and other abdominal 

 organs, in which cases they produce yellowish, 

 pearl-like nodules or tubercles. 



An outbreak of this disease in Colorado was studied by 

 the author during the spring of 1912, in which several birds 

 in a flock of sixty became ill. They were dull and weak, 

 with a partial loss of appetite and a tendency to crane their 

 necks when they tried to swallow, became poor in flesh and 

 after one to two or three weeks died. The comb, in most 

 instances, turned black shortly before death. 



On autopsy there were found myriads of small, yellowish- 

 white specks over the abdominal air sacs, lungs and trachea. 

 These specks, when examined under the microscope, proved 

 to be the air-sac mite (Cytodites nudus) as illustrated in 

 Fig. 12. 



Treatment. — It is said that sulphur given with 

 the feed will be absorbed and eliminated by the 

 lungs in sufficient quantities to kill the parasites 

 that infest them, but this is doubtful. A better 

 method of handling an outbreak of air-sac disease 



