HEALTH AND DISEASE OF POULTRY 581 



It is only within the last decade that the presence of fowl chol- 

 era in the New England States in general, and in Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, and Connecticut, in particular, has been urgently 

 brought before the investigators of poultry diseases as a gradually 

 increasing source of danger to the poultry industry as a whole, and 

 as a definite problem to be attacked by those few investigators who 

 are concerned with problems of poultry hygiene. 



In Rhode Island the evidence gained from poultrymen who 

 have sought aid from the Agricultural Experiment Station, and the 

 results of consequent investigations which the Station has made in 

 connection with the reported epidemics, all testify to the fact that 

 fowl cholera is increasing in that State. Many poultrymen in 

 Rhode Island and in Massachusetts have lost the majority of their 

 flocks, numbering from twenty to several thousand birds. 



Character and Symptoms of the Disease. Fowl cholera is an 

 acute, highly contagious disease, affecting especially the intestines, 

 lungs, liver and spleen of nearly all poultry (especially fowl and 

 water fowl), manifesting itself by very high fever, accompanied by 

 yellowish diarrheal discharges, and terminating fatally in the ma- 

 jority of cases as a result of internal hemorrhages, or interrupted 

 respiration. The first appearance of the disease in a flock is likely 

 to be sudden, and the first birds die without apparent cause; they 

 may lie dead under the roosts in the morning or they may be found 

 dead on the nest. At the beginning of an epidemic, while the dis- 

 ease is in its acute stage, it is unusual to observe the birds while 

 they are sick, since they die so suddenly. After a few days, how- 

 ever, the disease usually becomes transformed into a less acute type, 

 in which the birds are frequently seen to be ill. They may walk 

 slowly about the yards, or crouch with ruffled feathers in remote cor- 

 ners, eating little and avoiding their companions. From time to 

 time they stretch their heads and necks forward, or from side to 

 side, as if cramped or in pain. There is an obstinate diarrhea, the 

 feathers become stained and the thirst is increased ; the temperature 

 rises to 110-112 F. Finally extreme weakness comes on, the head 

 falls forward until the beak rests on the floor, mucus oozes from 

 the mouth, and the eyes are closed. Thus the bird may remain for 

 some hours, breathing with difficulty, until at last the body rolls to 

 one side, there are a few convulsive twitches of the limbs, one long 

 extension of the leg muscles, a cough or two, and the bird expires. 

 The acute form endures from 1 to 3 days ; the chronic form, several 

 weeks. The duration depends largely upon the virulence of the 

 infecting organism. 



The Causative Organism* The micro-organism causing fowl 

 cholera was recognized in 1878, although it does not appear to have 

 been cultivated in pure cultures until 1880, by Pasteur and Tous- 

 sin. It is one of the smallest of the disease-producing bacteria, and 



*A study of the biological relations and cultural peculiarities of the fowl 

 cholera organism is now being conducted at the Rhode Island Station, and will 

 be published at a later date. 



