49^ DIPHTHERIA IN FOWLS 



possible, the source of the infection should be determined and 

 removed. 



3. The quite common practice of allowing fowls from 

 different flocks to run together during the day should he dis- 

 couraged. 



4. Care should be taken to avoid the possibility of bring- 

 ing the virus of the disease from affected flocks in the dirt or 

 excrement which naturally adheres to the shoes in walking 

 through an infected chicken yard. The same care is necessary 

 in the interchange of working implements, such as shovels, 

 hoes and the like. 



Ward has found that this disease can be prevented by 

 keeping infected fowls away. 



It is evident to any careful observer that the fact is too 

 often overlooked that fowls, owing to their method of living, 

 are more liable to infection than other farm animals. This is 

 especialh' true when they are allowed to run at random, pick- 

 ing their living from the garbage pile and barnyards, or secur- 

 ing even more unwholesome food. There is little doubt that 

 many so called outbreaks of contagious disease among fowls are 

 simply enzootics brought about by various infections to which 

 they have been exposed. 



The wide distribution, the large niimber of fowls affected 

 and the usual chronic course of this disease render it one of 

 the few poultry affections for which curative measures promise 

 to be of some practical value. The most certain of the known 

 methods of treatment is the local application of disinfectants, 

 among which a weak solution of carbolic acid appears to be 

 the most satisfactory. The dipping of the heads of fowls in a 

 solution of I to 2 per cent of permanganate of potash, or a 3 

 per cent solution of creolin is reported to be very effective in 

 cases where the lesions are external and in the early stages. 

 The fact that the lesions are so much exposed renders the dis- 

 ease especially favorable for topical applications. When the 

 exudates are in the suborbital sinus or in the nares there is 

 less opportunity for treatment. 



