204 



AVIAN TUBERCULOSIS 



very destructive. It was recognized by the owners as " spotted 

 liver," going light, and rheumatism. In 1900 it was described 

 by Burnett from northern New York. In Europe it has 



been known for a long time. 



§ 149. Symptoms. The 

 symptoms described as quite 

 constant are emaciation, which 

 in advanced cases becomes 

 extreme, and anemia. The 

 comb, the skin, and the visi- 

 ble mucosa about the head 

 are usually pale. As the 

 course of the disease advances 

 the feathers become ruffled 

 and the fowls are weak, dump- 

 ish and move about very little. 

 The eyes are bright in most 

 cases until the end is near. 

 The appetite is good, and the 

 fowls eat ravenously until a 

 few days before death. The 

 temperature is in most cases 

 within the normal limits, 

 rarely it is subnormal. The 

 blood is pale. The hemo- 

 globin varies from thirty-five 

 to seventy per cent as tested 

 with Gowers' hemoglobino- 

 meter. The red blood corpus- 

 cles vary from 1,010,000 to 

 2,600,000 per cubic milli- 

 meter. There appears to be a 

 slight increase in the number 

 of white corpuscles, especially 

 of the eosinophiles. 

 Tuberculous fowls are often lame. Pernot mentions this 

 as one of the important symptoms in the cases he observed. 



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Fig. 45. Avian tubercle bacteria. 

 (/ ) from liver tissue of a fowl, {z) 

 a photograph from a preparation 

 from a glycerine agar culture, x 

 about 600. 



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