196 DISEASES OF DOMESTICATED BIRDS 
General character. The female worms are about four-fifths of 
an inch in length and reddish in color. In most cases, the male, 
about a quarter of an inch long, is in copulation, attached to the 
female near the anterior extremity. Thus the appearance of a 
forked worm is induced. 
Symptoms. The presence of the worms is indicated by the 
peculiar wheezing cough, gasping and the expulsion of frothy saliva 
from the beak. The birds appear dull with ruffled feathers, lose 
appetite, breathe with difficulty and display cachexia. Spontaneous 
recovery is rare, and in the absence of treatment the parasites cause 
heavy mortality. Only young birds experience harm from their 
presence. 
Morbid anatomy. The presence of the parasites in the air 
passages enveloped in foamy mucus is the most important feature 
observed at autopsy. The point at which the parasites adhere often 
consists of an abscess filled with yellow colored pus of caseous con- 
sistency. Such an abscess may cause asphyxia. 
Life history. The sexually ripe females are expelled by cough- 
ing, whereupon the eggs are disseminated by the disintegration of 
the female. Thus water and soil become contaminated with the 
larvee hatching from the eggs. It is not believed that an intermediate 
host is necessary in the life cycle of the parasite, even though it has 
been shown that the feeding of earthworms will induce the disease 
among’ chicks otherwise protected against infection. Undoubtedly 
earthworms may contain larve in the intestinal tract, due to earth 
ingested by them, without however, playing the réle of a host. It has 
been demonstrated repeatedly that chicks may be infected by drink- 
ing boiled water artificially infected with ova and young gape worms. 
The young worms may live for some time in water, and the per- 
sistence of the infection is favored by a wet soil. Infection undoubt- 
edly occurs through ingestion. The embryos probably make their 
way from the gullet or crop, to the trachea by perforating the walls 
of the organs in question. 
Treatment. The practice of dislodging the worms by the appli- 
cation of various remedies applied by inserting the tip of a feather 
into the trachea and twisting, is widespread. The small size of the 
trachea in young chicks and the fact that some worms are located at 
its lower extremity out of reach, makes the operation painful and 
uncertain in its results. Among the remedies applied are oil of 
cloves, oil of turpentine thinned with double its volume of olive oil 
and kerosene oil. The feather also acts mechanically in dislodging 
