HEALTH AND DISEASE OF POULTRY 603 



defends himself and his flock when he cleans up with powdered 

 air-slaked lime. 



Maxims 1, 2, and 3 form together a strong combination in 

 combating the baneful influences of these carriers. The sprink- 

 ling of the lime should be carried out the same evening that the 

 Epsom salt is given. The cleaning-out process is accomplished 

 largely during the night and the air-slacked lime on the droppings 

 boards serves to destroy the parasites thus ejected from their har- 

 boring hosts, whether sick, chronic, or healthy carriers. There- 

 fore, whenever Epsom salt is administered it is well to sprinkle 

 air-slaked lime about the premises, especially under the perches. 



Clean the Water Supply. Water-borne diseases are frequent 

 in the poultry yard. If the poultryman permits, consciously or 

 unwittingly, one sick bird to run at large with any of the contagious 

 diseases of the head parts or with bowel diseases, it is practically 

 certain that the water supply will be contaminated in less than one 

 hour's time. In the case of a large flock affected with flagellate 

 diarrhea, flagellates in less than one hour's time were found in 

 the drinking water which has been sterilized and placed in thor- 

 oughly disinfected fountains. It is well known now boards of 

 health throughout the country recognize the danger which lurks 

 in the public drinking fountain, and endeavor to safeguard the 

 public health by adopting the individual drinking cup. While 

 the poulterer can not adopt the individual cup for his fowls, he can 

 by hygienic methods secure an equally good result by adding 

 every few days (daily during the prevalence of disease) one of 

 the antiseptics previously mentioned. In the proportions named, 

 these remedies do not actually disinfect the water, that is, destroy 

 the microbes deposited in it by sick birds. They act rather as anti- 

 septics, that is to say, they serve to inhibit the development of bac- 

 terial and other microbial life. This hindering of microbic growth 

 occurs not only in the drinking fountain, but is maintained in the 

 intestinal tract, thus making maxim 3 a splendid adjunct to 

 maxim 2. 



In ordinary circumstances, where drinking water is supplied 

 in containers, these vessels should be sterilized once daily by means 

 of hot water, and the water should be changed once a day in cool 

 weather and twice daily in warm weather. During the prevalence 

 of disease the water can not be changed too often and the vessels 

 might well be scalded twice daily. 



Clean Food. This, as before stated, must be accomplished 

 by preventing contamination, or, when that occurs, by the appli- 

 cation of heat, A man once said, "Oh, chickens love moldy bread; 

 they will eat all they can get of it, and it never hurts them." That 

 man, unfortunately, had never learned to reason from cause to 

 effect, and was, therefore, unfitted to deal with health questions. 

 Few, if any, of the intelligent men and women who are practical 

 poulterers would care to furnish moldy feed to their high-priced 

 prize winners. Pathologists recognize a disease called mycotic en- 

 teritis, which is an inflammation of the intestinal tract, manifest- 



