FOWL CHOLERA (CHOLERA GALLINARUM) 



BY J. WILLEMS 



Translated from French by Victor Fortier 



The readers of ("FElevage" of Laeken-Belgigue Europe) are well 

 acquainted with the losses caused by the dread disease which we intend to 

 discuss a little in the following lines. 



Fowl cholera is the most dreadful and deadly disease that attacks our 

 farm yard feathered tribe. 



Chickens, pigeons, ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, guinea fowl, peacocks, 

 rabbits, guinea pigs, all and every one of the dwellers of our roosts and 

 pens may be stricken by the frightful sickness. , 



The disease is highly infectious and virulent. It is characterized by 

 dullness, stupor, brownish coloring of the comb and visible mucous mem- 

 branes, ill smelling and profuse diarrhea. The course of the disease is rapid 

 and unfavorable. In the space of a few hours, the animals die in the midst 

 of horrible suffering. For many years the affection caused untold and 

 innumerable losses. The disease appears spontaneously and in a few days 

 causes the greatest devastation .The large and extensive poultry yards 

 are generally the greatest sufferers, and in a very short time the most 

 prosperous establishment is turned into a vast cemetery. The virulence 

 of the disease is such, that one drop of blood taken from an infected fowl 

 and injected into a healthy one causes the death of the latter in a few hours. 

 The disease has such a rapid course, that in a few days all the animals 

 whose blood or organs contain the microbe, perish. 



As soon as a hen house, or poultry yard is infected, the healthy animals 

 must be separated from the diseased. Deep buryial in the ground of all 

 dead fowls, is an elementary precaution against further contagion. 



For several centuries, fowl cholera filled the human race with a dread 

 and fear equalled only by the shudder of intense horror caused by the black 

 plague. When we read the accounts of ancient poultry raising, we are 

 horrified to find that the dread plague mowed down the harmless fowls by 

 the million and laid waste the finest establishments of the time. 



Humanity has made wonderful strides in progress. Admirable and 

 wonderful discoveries are made every day, and man finds new weapons 

 wherewith to carry on the fight against the numerous enemies which 

 surround him. 



Pasteur, the wonderful genius to whom we owe so many beneficial 

 discoveries, found and isolated the microbe of chicken cholera and intro- 



