394 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1190 



the soil more easily than the smooth type of 

 grain. 



A. E. Grantham 

 Delaware Ageiculttjral Exp. Station 



a means of transmitting the fowl 

 nematode, heterakxs papillosa 



BLOCH' 



A RECENT experiment demonstrated that the 

 fowl nematode, Heterakis papillosa Bloch^ 

 may be transmitted to chickens by the feeding 

 of a dung earthworm, Helodrilus gieseleri 

 hempeli Smith.= The thirteen fowls (three 

 of them controls) used in the experiment were 

 hatched in an incubator, reared in a worm- 

 proof field cage,^ and given food free from 

 animal tissues, while the dung earthworms 

 were taken from a poultry yard in which the 

 fowls were heavily infected with E. papillosa. 

 When these chicks were about five weeks old, 

 they were given dung earthworms every few 

 days until each chick had ingested approx- 

 imately forty worms. Of ten chicks so fed, 

 four became infected with H. papillosa, the 

 results of these examinations being as follows : 



Chick 104, examined sixty-four days after 

 first feeding, nine nematodes in the caeca. 



Chick 117, examined one hundred thirty- 

 seven days after first feeding, one nematode 

 in the right csecum. 



Chick 128A, examined twenty-nine days 

 after feeding, two nematodes in the cseca. 



Chick 130A, examined twenty-seven days 

 after feeding, two nematodes in the CKca. 

 The six remaining chicks and the three con- 

 trols were free from nematodes. 



As is well known, these small nematodes 

 commonly occur in the cseea of fowls, although 



1 Coutributiou No. 19 from the Zoological Lab- 

 oratory, Kansas State Agricultural College. Aid 

 of Adams Fund. 



2 The identification of this nematode has been 

 verified by Dr. B. H. Ransom, Zoologist, B. A. I., 

 U. S. Dept. Agr., Washington, D. C. 



3 The earthworms were identified by Professor 

 Frank Smith, University of Illinois. 



4 The field cage with its floor and eighteen-inch 

 walls of cement is so constructed as to be prac- 

 tically insect-proof also. Examinations of con- 

 trol chickens every few weeks for three years have 

 not yielded a single parasitic worm. 



they are not infrequently found in the large 

 intestine. Of three hundred ninety-five chick- 

 ens taken locally and examined in this lab- 

 oratory during the last three years, two hun- 

 dred ninety-three (74.1 per cent.) were in- 

 fected with H. papillosa. The average infec- 

 tion was 34.4 nematodes, but a single infection 

 of one hundred nematodes is not uncommon, 

 and in one instance a fowl contained three 

 hundred twenty-six of these parasites. 



The means by which chickens become in- 

 fected with H. papillosa is not wholly under- 

 stood. Evidently, in some cases, a dung earth- 

 worm transmits these nematodes, but whether 

 the relation between the two worms is one of 

 parasitism or merely that of an association 

 has not been fully determined. The presence 

 of certain nematodes both free in the neph- 

 ridia and imbedded in the muscles of earth- 

 worms furnishes a suggestive hypothesis. 

 Dung earthworms are of common occurrence 

 in the local poultry yards, and it might be 

 possible to account for the rather heavy nem- 

 atode infection of fowls from this source 

 alone. But Leuckart long ago pointed out 

 that H. papillosa may develop directly, accord- 

 ing to Eailliet and Lucet,'^ who, by feeding to 

 a fowl eggs removed from the uterus of E. 

 papillosa, secured a direct infection of fifteen 

 of these nematodes. The writer, likewise, has 

 obtained direct infections by giving eggs of 

 this nematode to fowls reared under controlled 

 conditions. These data indicate that the re- 

 lation of the nematode to the earthworm is 

 that of an association, in which case the eggs 

 of the former might be carried on the slimy 

 surface of the earthworm or in its engulfed 

 food. However, the evidence is not such as 

 to preclude the possibility that this earthworm, 

 E. gieseleri hempeli, may, in some way, serve 

 as an intermediate host of E. papillosa, and 

 it is hoped that experiments now under way 

 will reveal the nature of this relation. 



Manhattan, Kans. 



James E. Ackert 



5 Eailliet, A., et Lucet, A., "Observations et 

 experiences sur quelques helminths du genre Heter- 

 aUs Dujardin," Bull. Soc. Zool. France, Par., 17: 

 117-120, 1892. 



