684 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE PRESENCE OP FOWL CHOLERA. 



The poultryman must not be deceived into believing that the 

 first disease which causes a high mortality in his flock is necessarily 

 fowl cholera. Unfortunately many poultrymen have a tendency to 

 use the term in a very loose sense, and place under this head almost 

 any ailment that is accompanied by diarrhea, and causes the bird 

 to sit in a corner with ruffled feathers. The real cholera of fowls 

 usually manifests certain specific, clinical features and pathological 

 appearances, which the observing poultryman will have little diffi- 

 culty in recognizing. In order of their importance these clinical 

 features are as follows: 



Sudden Death. The early deaths are likely to be of this 

 character. Sick birds are seldom seen, but they are found under 

 the roosts dead, in the morning. Later in the course of the epi- 

 demic the duration of illness is greater. 



Yellow or Green Excreta. This is a very characteristic symp- 

 tom. The excreta of normal fowls is not yellow; and when it is 

 green, it is dark green, approaching black. In cholera both the 

 yellow and the green are bright; the green is often an emerald 

 green. These different colors may occur either alone or separately ; 

 and both are usually accompanied by diarrhea and the extrusion of 

 thick mucus. In case it is known that cholera is in the neighbor- 

 hood, it is well for a poultryman to examine, from day to day, the 

 character of the droppings on the dropping board. 



High Temperature. The temperature of the normal fowl is 

 between 106 F. and 107 F., higher at evening and lower in the 

 morning, although fowls show many individual irregularities, some 

 having a higher, some a lower, temperature. Within a few days 

 after infection the temperature rises to a point between 109 F. and 

 112 F., sometimes slightly higher. From this point it falls grad- 

 ually until death or recovery takes place. The poultryman can 

 easily take the temperature of sick birds by means of a veterinary 

 clinical thermometer. 



What to Do at the Beginning of an Epidemic. After a poul- 

 tryman has decided that the disease which has entered his flock is 

 actually fowl cholera, it is advisable to undertake, without delay of 

 an hour, immediate steps to check the progress of the epidemic ; and 

 these measures depend first upon the manner in which the poultry 

 are kept, whether in a single house, in colony houses with unre- 

 stricted range or in miscellaneous sheds, lofts, boxes, etc. Again 

 there is a difference in procedure depending upon whether the poul- 

 try are yarded in groups or run together. It may be said at the be- 

 ginning that, when the disease appears among fowls which are al- 

 lowed to run together in large numbers, the outlook for checking 

 the epidemic is not favorable. Assuming a case in which there are 

 several hundred birds in a long house containing a number of pens 

 with their associated yards, suppose that a poultryman has observed 

 several deaths in two of the pens, and has diagnosed the disease as 

 fowl cholera. His immediate procedure should be as follows: 



