BACTERIUM PULLORUM INFECTION IN FOWL. 87 



larged spleens associated with marked leukemic conditions, it was of 

 some significance that the true sanguinarium culture was identified only 

 six thnes. Chick examinations conducted dining this same period, repre- 

 senting several hundred examinations, all yielded typical pullorum cultures. 

 There was but one exception, and this culture was probably an atypical 

 pullorum form which had become anaerogenic. In the examination of the 

 adult avian specimens, the maltose-dextrine-dulcite negative forms isolated 

 from several dead hens indicate that Hadley is correct in his contention 

 that Bad. pullorum may assume a dual role: Bad. ptillorum A being 

 maltose-dextrine-dulcite negative and aerogenic, infecting young chicks; 

 and Bad. pullorum B being maltose-dextrine-dulcite negative and an- 

 aerogenic, infecting adult hens. Cultures from eggs have alwaj^s been 

 aerogenic. If knowledge of Bad. sanguinarium is based upon the anaero- 

 genicity of cultures, the absence of this propertj'' in cultures isolated from 

 adult hens, chicks and eggs sent from all parts of the State would appear 

 to indicate that fowl typhoid is not widely distributed in Massachusetts. 



3. From pathological and bacteriological examination of 83 birds 

 sufi^ering with the so-called "paralysis," the evidence at hand does not 

 indicate that the disease, so widely distributed at certain periods of the 

 j^ear, is due to the presence of the pullorum or sanguinarium tyi)e of 

 organism. 



4. The agglutination test has become a popular means of recognition in 

 the domestic fowl of those individuals which have contracted infections 

 in chickhood, and consequently, as adult productive fowls, may have 

 become, through infections in their ovaries, carriers of infection to the 

 offspring. During this investigation hundreds of agglutination tests have 

 been made, demonstrating that there is an interagglutinability of Bad. 

 pullorum with Bad. sanguinarium, B. typhosus, B. paratyphosus A and 

 B. paratyphosus B antigens, with a consequent tendency to make the test 

 lose in terms of specificity. The fact remains, however, as a result of 

 experiments in this department, that in twentj^ flocks studied, representing 

 5,619 breeding birds, the test located infection in 924. Furthermore, the 

 differential characteristics of the cultures isolated from dead chicks which 

 had been hatched from eggs laid by these positively reacting birds proved 

 them to be t^-pical Bad. pullorum, confonning morphologically and bio- 

 chemically to the standard set for this organism. Therefore, from these 

 data, the conclusion seems justified that the agglutination test, when 

 carefully controlled through epidemiological work, is at present the best 

 method we have for locating Bad. pullorum infection and furnishing to 

 poultrymen a starting point for its elimination. 



