DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 95 



spring hatched chicks are freer from the disease 

 than summer hatched. This may be explained 

 by the fact that hens with diseased ovaries grad- 

 ually become poorer layers as the disease pro- 

 cesses advance, and hence, only lay in late spring 

 or early summer, when nature intends repro- 

 duction of birds. Finally the hen may cease 

 laying. 



Symptoms : Coccidian Form. — The symptoms, as I 

 have seen them, are similar to those of the 

 bacillary form, excepting, as a rule, the heavy 

 death rate takes place later. 



Mode of Spread: Bacillary Form.— Ovaries of lay- 

 ing hens, diseased, but still functionating, may be 

 infected by the germ. The germ can be isolated, 

 particularly from the yolk, of at least some of the 

 eggs formed in such an ovary. The chicks from 

 infected eggs, as a result, have the disease more 

 or less developed when they are hatched, as con- 

 ditions which favor hatching also favor the multi- 

 plication of the germs to an extent that toxins 

 (poisons) have already been produced in the 

 young in sufficient quantity for the disease to at 

 least manifest itself in a few hours after hatch- 

 ing, although ordinarily they do not begin to die 

 until they are about a week old. 



The whitish, frothy, pasty bowel discharge, 

 more or less sticky and having a tendency to 

 "paste up the vent," from these chicks is laden 

 with the germs, and others of the flock soon be- 

 come infected from contaminated food picked up 

 from the ground. In the former case, chicks may 

 begin to die soon after hatching, in the latter, in 

 from three to four days, a few dying each day. 



The death rate is high, reaching in many cases 

 as much as seventy-five per cent or more. Those 



