CHAPTER VI 
BACILLARY WHITE DIARRHEA 
Characterization. Bacillary white diarrhea is an acute, highly 
fatal septicemic disease of young chicks caused by Bacterium pul- 
lorum. The infection also exists in adult hens in a chronic, rarely 
fatal form, usually confined to the ovary. The disease as it occurs 
in hens bears no specific name and is merely referred to as B. pul- 
lorum infection. 
Etiology. Rettger and Harvey describe the characteristics of 
the organism substantially as follows: 
“ Morphology, staining properties, etc. The organism is a long, slender 
bacillus (.8-—.5 micron x 1-2.5 microns) with slightly rounded ends. It 
usually occurs single, chains of more than two bacilli being rarely found. 
It is non-motile, non-liquefying, non-chromogenic, aérobic and facultatively 
anaérobic. In its microscopic appearances it resembles the bacillus of 
typhoid fever. It is stained readily by the ordinary basic anilin dyes. 
It does not stain by the Gram method; neither does it retain its color 
when treated with dilute acetic and mineral acids. The organism does 
not produce spores, or at least they have never been observed. 
“The maximum temperature tolerated is 56 to 57° C. (moist) for an 
exposure of fifteen minutes. The optimum temperature is 35 to 37° C. 
“Cultural characters: Agar plates. Small white colonies make their 
appearance within twenty-four hours. They increase in size slowly and 
seldom attain more than one millimeter in diameter, even after three or 
four days’ incubation. Under the microscope they appear yellow and vary 
in form from oval and spindle-shaped to round. The surface is usually 
marked with a rosette figure or what seems to be a lobed nucleus. Occa- 
sionally two or even three of these markings may be seen. 
“Slant agar. Growth is quite visible in twenty-four hours, and re- 
sembles that of the typhoid bacillus. It spreads little and remains deli- 
cate, even after prolonged incubation. On glycerine agar the growth is 
practically the same. 
“ Gelatin plates. Small white colonies may be seen in forty-eight hours. 
They remain small for several days, and only under exceptional conditions 
do they develop into characteristic surface colonies which to a certain ex- 
tent resemble the grape-leaf colony of B. typhosus. 
“Gelatin stab. A delicate growth occurs in forty-eight hours along the 
whole line of inoculation. It is of distinctly granular appearance and 
spreads very little on the surface. The gelatin is not liquefied. 
“On potato development is very slow. A narrow, almost invisible 
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