HEALTH AND DISEASE OF POULTRY 571 



served. Proper methods of housing, feeding, incubation, brooding, 

 and management should therefore be employed. (Conn. B. 68.) 



Chickenpox. Chickenpox (sore head) occurs to some extent 

 in California, in the Gulf States, and is one of the great obstacles to 

 successful chicken growing in Hawaii. It is characterized by super- 

 ficial, wart-like tumors occurring upon the naked parts of the head. 

 These are usually covered with a scale of exudate. Upon removal 

 of the scab the tumor exhibits a whitish, shiny mass that cleaves 

 readily into minute cylindrical masses arranged perpendicularly to 

 the skin. The tumors spread rapidly from the primary focus. 



When the eyelids become seriously involved they necessarily 

 are kept closed, which results in death from starvation, when both 

 eyes are affected. The evidence at hand indicates that the disease 

 is usually fatal only when this occurs. Ordinarily the tumors are 

 present two or three weeks and disappear without having caused in- 

 jury. Chickenpox is readily transmissible by inoculation. The dis- 

 ease has been transmitted naturally to healthy chicks kept in close 

 contact with diseased ones. It does not appear that young chicks 

 are affected. Older fowls seem to withstand the affection better. 

 However it has been reported in adult fowls. The greatest trouble 

 was encountered during the excessively wet periods. As soon as the 

 disease was detected, the fowl was isolated in a hospital and given 

 local treatment with crude carbolic acid. Recovery occurred in a 

 large percentage of the fowls. (Calif. B.) 



BLACKHEAD (INFECTIOUS ENTERO-HEPATITIS ). 



Turkey raising in some parts of this country is developing into 

 a profitable industry. During the holiday season of the past year 

 the local dealers state that turkeys netted the producer from 16 to 

 22 cents per pound, live weight. Taking this as a basis, and con- 

 sidering the small expenditure which turkeys require where they 

 have access to a large range, the industry is a profitable one, pro- 

 viding that the fowls escape the ravages of contagious diseases. 



Young turkeys are very delicate and require a great deal of 

 care. Many of them die when very young of acute indigestion 

 from improper feeding and from exposure to wet and cold. Such 

 losses are frequently attributed to contagious disease, merely because 

 many are subjected to the same conditions at the same time. 



One of the most destructive diseases which has come to our 

 notice, attacking both old and young turkeys, is Entero-Hepatitis, 

 sometimes known as "black head." The latter term is a common 

 one owing to a peculiar dark color which the head assumes when 

 the disease is at its height, but this is merely a manifestation of dis- 

 sease situated in some other part of its anatomy. 



Entero-Hepatitis is an intestinal disease situated in the free ends 

 of the caeca, and is caused by a parasitic protozoa named by Smith 

 Amoeba meleagridis ; as this is what may be termed a feeaing dis- 

 ease, the parasite enters the body with food or drink, finally finding 

 lodgment in the mucous membrane of the caeca or in the liver. 

 There it multiplies and causes an inflammation which finally de- 

 stroys the mucous membrane. The affected caecum is very much 



