PREVENTION 333 



(2) If the disease appears in one or more fowls of a flock 

 they should be immediately separated from the well ones. If 

 possible, the source of the infection should be determined and 

 removed. 



(3) The quite common practice of allowing fowls from 

 different flocks to run together during the day should be dis- 

 couraged. 



(4) Care should be taken to avoid the possibility of 

 bringing the virus of the disease from affected flocks in the dirt 

 or excrement which naturally adheres to the shoes in walking 

 through an infected chicken yard. The same care is necessarj' 

 in the interchange of working implements, such as shovels, 

 hoes and the like. 



It is evident to any careful observer that the fact is too 

 often overlooked that fowls, owing to their method of living, 

 are more liable to infection than other farm animals. This is 

 especially true when they are allowed to run at random, as 

 thev too frequently are, picking their living from the garbage 

 pile and barnvards, or securing even more unwholesome food. 

 There is little doubt that many so-called outbreaks of con- 

 tagious disease among fowls are simply enzootics l^rought 

 about bjf improper care. 



The wide distribution, the large number of fowls affected 

 and the usual chronic course of this disease render it one of 

 the few poultry affections for which curative measures promise 

 to be of practical value. Although prevention is the safest of 

 cures, when the disease is once introduced as it is in a very 

 large number of flocks, the necessity for remedial treatment is 

 apparent and where economy is to be considered should be 

 recommended. The practice sometimes followed of destroying 

 all of the affected birds should be discouraged. Although 

 experiments have not been made to test the efficiency of 

 remedies already recommended or to investigate the prac- 

 ticability of others, the testimony of many practical poultry 

 raisers is to the effect that the disease is amenable to treat- 

 ment. The most certain of the known methods of treatment 

 is the local application of disinfectants, among which a weak 

 solution of carbolic acid appears to be the mo,st satisfactory. 



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