1917.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 31. 91a 



which is suitable for carrying on progressive work has not been 

 found. Definite studies, however, are under way toward this 

 end. With the spring months approaching, and suitable 

 weather and conditions for hatching and rearing chicks drawing 

 near, it is expected that with young and new materials to work 

 on more definite results may be obtained. The results up to 

 date show beyond a doubt that the toxin is endotoxic, and also 

 that it is most intimately connected with the bacterial cell. 

 Our toxin studies are being directed toward a better under- 

 standing of the nature of this infection, and ultimately the 

 department hopes from these studies to explain its action in 

 relation to some of the paralytic conditions in adult birds, 

 which in the last few years have been so common in the State 

 of Massachusetts. 



(3)^ The investigation concerning the production of anti- 

 bodies, with special reference to the potency and rate of produc- 

 tion, was started in August, 1916, and agglutinins artificially 

 produced. Blood from this stock has been studied, and now 

 attempts are being made to study the progeny this year to 

 determine how potent are agglutinins elaborated in birds 

 descended from stock known to have definite infection experi- 

 mentally produced. These studies are to be continued, with 

 the hope that we may be able to show the rate of production, 

 and demonstrate why young pullet blood testing has not given 

 as universally satisfactory results as the blood testing of birds 

 that have laid eggs and have ovaries capable of complete 

 function. This problem has direct bearing on the routine work 

 of testing breeding flocks for indications of Bacterium 'pullorum 

 infection. 



3. Suppression and Eradication of Bacillary White 



DiARRHCEA IN FoWLS. 



In the prosecution of this line of control work every effort 

 has been made to carry it on in the most practical way, looking 

 toward the elimination of the disease from the flocks of prac- 

 tical poultry keepers. The laboratory studies have shown the 

 test to be most accurate and reliable, and the testing that has 

 been done in the field since the work was started has been 

 entirely satisfactory. It is felt that the disease has been com- 



