168 SPECIAL BACTERIOLOGY 



Symptoms. In pigeons, reddened patches on mucous membrane of 

 mouth and fauces, which are covered later with a layer of thick yellow 

 fibrinous exudation, the back part of tongue, fauces, and corners of 

 the mouth being specially affected. In chickens the tongue, gums, nares, 

 larynx, and conjunctival mucous membranes are the parts affected 

 (see Photo., Fig. 60, of two Plymouth Rock chickens suffering from 

 this disease). The disease is very fatal to young fowls, the choice 

 varieties being most susceptible. 



Microscopical Appearances. Short bacilli with rounded ends 

 usually grouped together. They are longer and narrower than the 

 bacillus of chicken cholera. Sections of liver show them in irregular 

 masses in the interior of the vessels. 



Motility. Non-motile. 

 Spore Formation absent. 



Staining Reactions. Stain with ordinary aniline dyes. Gram's 

 reaction negative. 



Biological Characters. Aerobic non-liquefying bacillus. 



On Gelatine Plates greyish white colonies, which under a low power 

 resemble the typhoid bacillus. 



In Gelatine Stab Cultures, grows like a nail, with a whitish head. 



On Egg, Agar-Agar, Potato and Blood Serum it forms a greyish 

 covering. 



Bouillon is clouded, but there is no indol reaction. 



Pathogenic for rabbits, mice, small birds, pigeons, and chickens. 

 Rats are only slightly affected. 



There are white masses of necrosed liver tissue in the livers of mice 

 in whom the disease has been inoculated containing large numbers of 

 bacilli in the interior of the vessels. This characteristic is considered 

 by Loffler to be the best method of identifying the bacillus. 



DIPHTHERIA VITULORUM. 



Obtained by Loffler in 1884 in false membranes from the mouths 

 of calves suffering from an infectious form of diphtheria. 



Symptoms. Yellow patches on mucous membrane of cheeks, gums, 

 tongue, sometimes of larynx and nares, yellow discharge from the nose, 

 excessive salivation, occasional coughing, and diarrhoea. The animal 

 may die in four or five days, or may survive for several weeks. Diph- 

 theritic patches like those in mouth, etc., occur in the large intestine, 

 and sometimes abscesses are found in the lungs. 



