POULTRY DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 67 



with eggs for hatching. When it exists in a district it may be 

 disseminated by wild animals or wild birds." (Salmon). 

 Diagnosis: Salmon gives the following as external symptoms : 

 "The earliest indication of the disease is a yellow coloration 

 of the urates, or that part of the excrement which is excreted 

 by the kidneys. This in- health is a pure white, though it is 

 frequently tinted with yellow as a result of other disorders 

 than cholera. While therefore this yellowish coloration of the 

 urates is not an absolutely certain proof of cholera, it is a val- 

 uable indication when the disease has appeared in a flock and an 

 effort is being made to check its course by isolating birds as 

 soon as affected. In a few cases the first symptom is diarrhea 

 in which the excrement is passed in large quantities, and con- 

 sists almost entirely of white urates mixed with colorless mucus. 

 Generally the diarrhea is a prominent symptom. The excre- 

 ment is voided frequently, and consists largely of urates sus- 

 pended in a thin, transparent, sometimes frothy mucus. The 

 urates have a deep yellow color, which in the later stages of 

 the disease may change to greenish or even a deep green." 



"Very soon after these first symptoms appear the bird sep- 

 arates itself from the flock, it no longer stands erect, the feath- 

 ers are roughened or stand on end, the wings droop, the head 

 is drawn down towards the body and the general outline of 

 the bird becomes spherical or ball shaped. At this period there 

 is great weakness, the affected bird becomes drowsy and may 

 sink into a deep sleep which lasts during the last day or two 

 of its life and from which it is almost impossible to arouse 

 it. The crop is nearly always distended with food and appar- 

 ently paralyzed. There is in most cases intense thirst. If the 

 birds are aroused and caused to walk there is at first an abun- 

 dant discharge of excrement followed at short intervals by 

 scanty evacuations." 



In regard to the yellow or green excreta Hadley* says : 

 "This is a very characteristic symptom. The excrement of 

 normal fowls is not yellow; and when it is green it is a dark 

 green, approaching black. In cholera both yellow and green 

 are bright ; the green is often an emerald green. These differ- 

 ent colors may occur either alone or separately and both are 



♦Bulletin 144 R. I. Agr. Expt. Stat. (In press.) The manuscript of 

 this bulletin was very kindly loaned by Dr. Hadley. 



