82 POULTRY DISEASES 



as 120 grams, or three times the normal weiij^ht. 

 The intestines are congested and contain a frothy 

 material, dark in color. There is an occasional 

 hemorrhage in the lining (mucosa) of the in 

 testines. The spleen may be enlarged and its 

 contents soft. Small hemorrhages (petechia) may 

 be found in the heart, its coverings and other 

 parts. The kidneys are dark, enlarged and soft 

 (active and passive congestion and cloudy swell- 

 ing). The blood does not coagulate readily and 

 is found, upon microscopic examination, to be 

 teeming with the germs causing the disease (Bacil- 

 lus avisepticus). 



Case Report on Fowl Cholera 



A dead duck was sent to the laboratory from the outbreak 

 referred to above. The anatomical lesions found in the carcass 

 were as follows: Hemorrhagic areas in heart and epicardium; 

 inflammation and congestion of the ceca, and congestion of 

 the other portions of the intestines; the liver enlarged, 

 weighing eighty grams, and very dark in color. 



Two glycerin agar slants were inoculated from the heart 

 blood and from the liver. Stained smears from the heart 

 blood showed the typical polar-staining Bacillus avisepticus. 

 Pure cultures were obtained from the inoculated tubes. A 

 pullet weighing two pounds was given an intraperitoneal in- 

 jection of the twenty-four-hour agar-slant growth. Twenty- 

 four hours later she appeared sick, showing ruffled feathers, 

 loss of appetite, dullness, head and tail down and temperature 

 108.2 degrees P. 



An examination of the blood revealed the following: Hema- 

 globin, 90 per cent; erythrocytes, 2,520,000; leucocytes, 6,000 

 (hypoleukocytosis), thrombocytes, 184,000. The differential 

 count showed: eosinophiles, 37 per cent; neutrophiles, 2 per 

 cent; lymphocytes, small, 52 per cent, large, 5 per cent; 

 mononuclear lymphocytes, 4 per cent; mast cells, none. 



This bird died at the end of sixty hours. At the autopsy 

 there was noted a fibrinous peritonitis; some petechia on 

 mucous membranes; the liver enlarged, dark and weighing 

 seventy-two grams (thirty-five grams is the normal weight 

 for a bird of the size of this one). From the blood the germ 

 was isolated in pure culture as before. 



[Ward found in experimental cases of fowl cholera there 

 was a destruction of red blood cells and in some an increase 

 of white blood cells (leukocytes).] 



