64 POULTRY DISEASES 



in young, immature worms througli soiled food 

 and water. 



Treatment.— The treatment is difficult owing to 

 the fact that they are imbedded in tumefactions 

 in the walls of the gizzard. Give turpentine and 

 olive oil as directed for the treatment of Ascaris 

 inflexa infestations. The treatment should be re- 

 peated three or four times at intervals of one 

 week. 



Syngamus Trachealis 



This parasite is sometimes called the Scleras-- 

 toma syngamus, and popularly the forked worm 

 or gapeworm. There is another worm slightly 

 larger than this one that infests the bronchi and 

 trachea of ducks, swans and geese. It is called 

 the Syngamus hronchialis. 



Description. — The male is very much smaller than the 



female, upon -which it exists as a parasite. Fig. 23 illustrates 



these worms in copulation as they are 



always found. A, illustrates a section of 



mucous memhrane. B, the male, which, 



it will be noted, is much thinner than the 



female and scarcely one-fourth inch long; 



and C, the female, about one inch in 



length. The mouth parts are surrounded 



by a capsular arrangement by which it 



holds firmly to the mucous membrane of 



L A LJ3 the trachea or bronchi (windpipe). The 



IJBLJIIl/'-^ mouth parts are provided with chitinous 



Fig. 23. Syngamus teeth, with which they wound the mucous 



Trachealis membrane; from this wound they suck 



(natural size) blood. 



A, Mucous membrane , .. __. . tit. j, i j 



of trachea. Life History. — The female produces 



B, male, c, female. eggs Which escape from her body only 



after she is expelled from the host and 

 her body decomposed. The embryos thus escaping from the 

 decomposing and disintegrating female are taken up by earth 

 worms. Thus, chicks drinking contaminated water, or eat- 

 ing these infested earth worms, in turn, become infested; 

 or if the chick should pick up an expelled female containing 

 the mature eggs, the embryos -wotild be liberated in the 

 stomach of the chick, in which case they migrate to the 

 air sacs and air passages and grow to maturity. 



