POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. II 



cresol solution is recommended. The chief thing is to use an 

 effective disinfectant and plenty of it, and apply it at least twice. 

 A discussion of disinfectants immediately follows this section. 

 To complete the cleaning of the house, after the second spraying 

 of disinfectant is dry apply a liquid lice killer (made by putting 

 I part crude carbolic acid or cresol with 3 parts kerosene) lib- 

 erally to nests and roosts and nearby walls. After all this is 

 done the house will be clean. In houses cleaned annually in this 

 way the first step is taken towards hygienic poultry keeping. 



The same principles which have been here brought out should 

 be applied in cleaning brooders, brooder houses, and other things 

 on the plant with which the birds come in contact. 



What has been said has reference primarily to the annual or 

 semi-annual cleaning. It should not be understood by this that 

 no cleaning is to be done at any other time. On the contrary 

 the rule should be to keep the poultry house clean at all times, 

 never allowing filth of any kind to accumulate and using plenty 

 of disinfectant. 



Disinfection. — In the matter of disinfection there are several 

 options open to the poultryman. He may make his own disin- 

 fectant, or he may purchase proprietary compounds like Zeno- 

 leum, Carbolineum or a host of other "eums" which confront him 

 at every turn in his reading of poultry periodicals, or he may buy 

 a plain disinfectant like formaldehyde, or carboHc acid. 



The Experiment Station has tried various disinfectants with 

 a view to finding the most useful, when the factors of efficiency, 

 ease of application and low cost, are considered. There is prob- 

 ably no more effective disinfectant than formaldehyde, but after 

 trying it out it was necessary to abandon it as a general 

 poultry house disinfectant. The difficulty was that a man could 

 not stand the fumes long enough to spray and scrub out thor- 

 oughly a pen. Formaldehyde is very good where it can be used, 

 and there is no cheaper disinfectant, efficiency considered. Dr. 

 P. T. Woods has recently advocated the formaldehyde gas meth- 

 od for disinfecting poultry houses, using the permanganate meth- 

 od of generating. This, however, is indicated only for rooms 

 which can easily be closed up air tight. It costs too much in 

 time and trouble to make any form of "fresh air" poultry house 

 even moderately air tight. The formaldehyde gas method is 

 well adapted to disinfecting and fumigating feed rooms, incuba- 



