586 HORSE, SWINE AND POULTRY DISEASES 



2. Fowl cholera is an acute, highly infectious disease, affect- 

 ing nearly all poultry ; it is characterized by high fever and general 

 septicemia, and produces high mortalities in adult birds. Young 

 birds are less susceptible. 



3. The symptoms are: (1) sudden death, (2) a yellowish 

 or greenish diarrhea, (3) general weakness. Recovery is infrequent. 



4. The pathological conditions include: (1) haemorrhagic 

 inflammation of the intestines and lungs, (2) enlargement and 

 softening of the liver and spleen, with minute haemorrhages on the 

 surface of the former and on the heart. 



5. The cause of fowl cholera is a minute micro-organism 

 (Bacillus bipolaris septieus) which grows in the blood and in the 

 organs. The organisms are present in great numbers in the excre- 

 ment and in the blood of diseased birds, and it is through the in- 

 gestion of infected material that the disease is usually transmitted. 



6. Fowl cholera has been treated in Europe by means of 

 serum inoculations, some of which are commercial preparations. 

 But these have not been placed on the market in this country, and 

 even abroad they have not given uniformly satisfactory results. 

 (B. I. B. 144.) 



GOOSE SEPTICAEMIA. 



Cause of the Disease. This disease is caused by bacteria having 

 the characters of the fowl cholera (or more generally rabbit sep- 

 ticaemia) type. Goose septicaemia is produced by a variety of the 

 above. It belongs to the same group of easily-perishable non-re- 

 sistent bacilli as those of swine plague. 



Diagnosis. The only diagnosis of goose septicaemia that can 

 be made by the layman is by a careful study of any suspicious cases. 

 and a comparison with the history of this disease or any other out- 

 break that may be recorded. So few diseases of this kind attack 

 geese that it is possible that there can be no grounds for confusion 

 with other diseases. 



A loss of a majority of those attacked is sustained, and the 

 disease dies out on account of lack of new material. The disease 

 sometimes persists in flocks for some weeks, though comparatively 

 few die at a time, even less than a third die, though nearly all the 

 pens be affected. This condition is explainable on the ground that 

 the germ is transmitted from one to another, and that only those 

 into which the germ can gain entrance through a wound are affected. 

 The bacteria cause death by the poisons produced, by their rapid 

 multiplication, by their living upon the blood of the animal, by the 

 excretion they give off into the blood. The quickest death noted, 

 less than eighteen hours indicates how rapidly the germs must multi- 

 ply to produce the myriads which are necessary to cause death. 



Remedies. The treatment of goose septicaemia must ever be 

 preventive. Medicinal treatment is unavailing, on account of the 

 small value of each patient, the difficulty of early diagnosis and 

 treatment, and the character of the disease which practically for- 

 bids any but symptomatic treatment even in the case of larger and 

 more valuable animals. 



