158 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



farm the previous summer. The remainder of the flock, con- 

 sisting of fowls and chicks, liad been purchased of a dealer in 

 live poultry the previous November. At this time all the birds 

 raised and purchased seemed to be in perfect health. The his- 

 tory of the outbreak is briefly as follows : — 



About Jan. 1, 1907, one morning the poultryman found, 

 upon going into the house containing the purchased stock, a 

 dead bird upon the dropping board. No sick fowls had been 

 noticed the day previous. During the next two weeks several 

 dead birds Avere found under conditions similar to the first. 

 Few or no fowls of the flock exhibited symptoms of sickness at 

 any time during the existence of the trouble. The loss con- 

 tinued, however, up to the middle of January, when the speci- 

 men was sent to the station. The total loss amounted to about 

 twenty per cent, of the entire flock. One morning three dead 

 birds were found under the roosts. At no time did the disease 

 appear among the fowls raised upon the farm. This is prol)ably 

 to be accounted for by the fact that the infectious material was 

 brought on to the place by the purchased stock, and that the 

 two flocks were kept entirely separate. As soon as a diagnosis 

 of the disease had been made, the poultryman was advised of 

 the contagiousness and seriousness of it, and the possibilities of 

 its spreading to other flocks in the neighborhood. He showed 

 a willingness to do all in his power to eradicate the disease as 

 soon as possible. At an early date all the remaining birds 

 in the infected house were destroyed, the house thoroughly 

 cleaned, fumigated and sprayed with a disinfectant solution. 

 The treatment was so heroic and so faithfully carried out that 

 there has been, so far as known, no recurrence of the trouble. 



On April 18, 1907, a dead fowl from a farm on the opposite 

 side of the street to the one where fowl cholera had existed 

 was sent to the station. 



An autopsy, supplemented by inoculation experiments and 

 microscopic examinations, resulted in a diagnosis of fowl 

 cholera, identical in every respect with that found to exist in 

 the fowls ko})t on the adjoining fjirni. There were from four 

 to five hundred birds on the place. A part had been raised on 

 the farm, a })urt purchased of itinerant dealers in live poultry. 

 The fowls were divided into two lots. About one hundred had 



