346 Farm Poultry 



but most of the following will be apparent in epi- 

 demics of any considerable size. The earliest deaths 

 may occur within a very short time after hatching 

 without any prominent symptoms except perhaps 

 weakness and lack of vitality. The characteristic 

 whitish discharge from the vent soon makes its 

 appearance in the flock . . . the discharge may 

 be slight or profuse, in color white or creamy, some- 

 times mixed with brown. The voided matter has a 

 more or less sticky or glairy character. It may 

 streak down below the vent or may cling to the down 

 sufficiently to seal up the vent. . . . Chicks 

 soon become listless and sleepy . . . wings droop 

 or project slightly beyond the body, with feathers 

 ruffled. In acute cases the eyes are closed and 

 chicks become indifferent to everything about them. 

 Frequently when endeavoring to void excreta the 

 chicks utter a shrill twitter apparently a cry of 

 pain. The weakling is almost always big-bellied, 

 the abdomen protruding to the rear so that it 

 bunches out behind. . . With few exceptions deaths 

 from typical bacillary white diarrhea occur while 

 the chicks are under one month of age. Chicks 

 which have had bacillary white diarrhea seem to 

 be greatly weakened in constitution and fall an 

 easy victim to disorders which would be easily re- 

 sisted by normal chicks. 



"The mother hen is the original source of infec- 

 tion of the chick . . . although the disease may 



