STRONGYLIN.E 295 



good condition being equalty susceptible with others. A tj'pical symp- 

 tom of the affection is a pecuHar stretching of the neck accompanied 

 by a yawn-like opening of the beak from which movement the disease 

 derives its name "gapes." The birds repeatedly shake their heads, 

 sneeze, and expel tenacious masses of mucus which ma}^ contain one 

 or more pairs of the worms. The appetite, at first voracious, diminishes, 

 and the birds become dull and inactive with feathers erect and lusterless. 



Emaciation progresses, the mouth is filled with frothj^ saliva, respira- 

 tion becomes increasingly difficult, and the animal dies from exhaustion, 

 or it may be from asphyxia before such advanced symptoms are reached. 

 Recovery is rare in young birds. Older ones sometimes survive if the 

 infestation is light. 



Treatment.^^A method of treatment commonly practiced is to strip 

 a feather of its barbules to within a short distance of its tip and inserting 

 this into the trachea with a rotary movement, attempt to detach and 

 elevate the worms. Only such worms as are not firmly fixed to the 

 mucosa are removed by this process and, in view of the danger of its 

 causing suffocation, it is a questionable procedure imless as an urgent 

 palhative measure. 



A better treatment is to give with the food certain substances of strong 

 odor eUminated in the respiratory passages and having a deleterious 

 effect upon the parasites. As such agents garlic and asafetida have 

 been employed with success. According to Neumann, M^gnin has had 

 good results with a mixture of equal parts of asafetida and powdered 

 gentian root incorporated in a cake and given in the proportion of eight 

 grains per bird each day. 



Another method recommended is the injection into the trachea of 

 about fifteen drops of a five to eight per cent, solution of salicylic acid. 

 The injection should be made slowly with a small syringe and canula. 



Fimiigations with such agents as sulphurous acid or tobacco smoke, 

 resorted to by some, involve such risk of accident from suffocation as 

 to make their use unadvisable. 



As prevention, affected birds and those apparently healthy should 

 be removed to clean and separate quarters and the infested yards 

 cleaned and sprinkled with a one to one thousand solution of sulphuric 

 acid. The bodies of dead birds are to be buried deeply or burned. 

 Food and water should be fresh, given from clean utensils, and not per- 

 mitted to stand about. As an aid in prevention the addition of fifteen 

 grains of salicylate of soda to the quart of drinking water has been 

 reconmaended. 



The Kidney Worm of the Hog 



Stephanurus dentatus. Strongylidse (p. 255). — This worm is at 

 present of somewhat uncertain position in the classification of the 



