576 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



on it until the lime is reduced to a dusty powder. Old air-slaked 

 lime loses its strength and is not so good. 



Instead of this, a strong whitewash may be made, and with a 

 broom or spray wet every part of the coop and floor. Five cents' 

 worth of lime will disinfect a good-sized coop if thoroughly applied. 

 A solution of carbolic acid prepared by mixing 5 parts of the acid 

 to 100 parts of water makes a good disinfecting solution and may 

 be applied in the same manner. as the whitewash, or chloride of 

 lime, five ounces to one gallon of water is good. Corrosive sub- 

 limate (mercuric chloride) in a strength of one ounce to about 

 eight gallons of water, is a strong disinfectant and may also be used 

 as the preceding ones, but it is poisonous and must be handled with 

 great care. 



The habits of turkeys are peculiar. They are not so domesti- 

 cated as other fowls and seem to thrive better when allowed to roam 

 at will. They are particular and suspicious of strange food given 

 them, making it difficult to administer medicines without confining 

 them and using force. Considering these peculiarities, an attempt to 

 administer medicine while they run at large or to disinfect the 

 premises, is impracticable, but lime should be freely used on the 

 excreta beneath where they roost and on their feeding grounds. 

 (Oregon B. 95.) 



TUBERCULOSIS IN FOWLS. 



Tuberculosis in fowls is a serious pest in Europe, but seems to 

 be rare in America, or at least has not been frequently reported. 

 Thus far fowl tuberculosis has been located in Oregon (by Pernot, 

 1900), in California (by Moore and Ward, 1903), in Canada (by 

 Higgins, 1905), in New York (by Burnett, 1907), and in the south- 

 eastern corner of Michigan in February of this year by the Patho- 

 logical Division of the Dep. of Agriculture. 



The disease exists extensively among many large poultry 

 ranches, but seldom kills enough fowls at any one time to excite 

 the alarm of the owner. Its existence in a flock constitutes a steady 

 drain, but it fails to attract much attention, because the losses are 

 so evenly distributed in point of time. Tuberculosis has been ob- 

 served in grown fowls only. It does not appear to occur in young 

 chicks. 



In the first outbreak of the disease brought to notice, the owner 

 reported a loss of about two hundred and fifty fowls during a year, 

 out of a flock of fourteen hundred. He had made a large number 

 of post-mortem examinations, and as the alterations occurring in 

 the disease are readily recognized, the observations have some in- 

 terest. 



Symptoms. There seems to be no noticeable symptoms until 

 the disease has progressed far enough to cause emaciation and 

 weakness. In such cases the breast muscles are found to be wasted 

 away and the light weight is very noticeable. Lameness often oc- 

 curs, and poultrymen usually refer to such fowls as affected with 

 "rheumatism." This conclusion is not justified, for in a number 

 of such cases the writer has been able to find tuberculosis of the 



