1 14 The Essentials of Poultry Raising 



327. Structure of Tapeworms. The tapeworm consists of a 

 head, neck, and body. The head is slightly larger than the neck 

 and is provided with suckers, and, in some varieties, with small 

 hooks with which it holds on to the intestinal wall. The neck 

 in some varieties is short and in others it is long. The seg- 

 ments which make up the body grow from the lower end. Each 

 segment is a complete individual within itself, fertilizing itself, 

 obtaining its own food, and maturing hundreds of eggs. As 

 fast as the segments at the end of the worm are filled with 

 fully developed eggs, they detach themselves and pass out to 

 contaminate the feed and water consumed by other fowls, 

 thereby infesting them. The tapeworm has no digestive tract. 

 It lives by absorbing the digested nutrients of the intestines in 

 which it grows. 



328. Size of Tapeworms. Tapeworms of fowls vary in size 

 from those just large enough to be seen to worms three or four 

 inches in length and an eighth to one-fourth of an inch wide. 



329. The Intermediate Host. Some of the tapeworms pass a 

 part of their life in other parasites or animals ; among these 

 intermediate hosts are house flies, snails, and earth worms. The 

 fowls devouring these worms and insects containing the larvae 

 become infested. 



330. Treatment of Birds Infested With Tapeworms. To each 

 fifty birds use one-half pound of finely chopped tobacco stems. 

 Steep the tobacco in hot water for two hours and mix with 

 mash. Two doses should be given two days apart. The treat- 

 ment' should be administered in the morning on an empty crop 

 and no feed should be given during the day of the treatment. 

 The birds treated should be moved to houses and yards free 

 from the infestation. The yard can be disinfected by using one 

 gallon, one to one thousand bichloride of mercury, to each ten 

 square feet of space. The houses should be thoroughly cleaned 

 and the same solution used in them as on the ground. 



331. Effect of Large Numbers of Tapeworms Upon the Bird. 



