166 POULTRY DISEASES 



terial flora of eggs. It is needless to say that all 

 understand that the spoiling of eggs is due to the 

 multiplication of bacteria in them, when the egg 

 is brought under proper temperature. The cold 

 storage of eggs holds them under conditions un- 

 favorable for the rapid growth of these bacteria. 

 When eggs are kept cold the bacteria within them 

 are in a more or less" dormant state and hence by 

 reason of this retardation of germ growth the 

 eggs keep longer. 



Eggs can be successfully desiccated (dried) and 

 such powdered product is on the market. The 

 moisture in it is so reduced that germs do not 

 grow and, like any other dried product, it keeps 

 well. This desiccated product retains the quali- 

 ties of the fresh egg for a long time. One pound 

 represents about three and one-half pounds of raw 

 egg or an amount obtained from thirty eggs. The 

 egg contains considerable fat and because of this 

 the dried product gradually undergoes a change 

 at warm temperatures, much as butter does, 

 finally giving off a rancid fishlike odor. 



It is not probable that the yolk or ovum be- 

 comes infected while it is being formed in the 

 ovary, unless the ovary, from which it develops, be 

 diseased. . It has been shown that birds that have 

 had white diarrhea while chicks and recovered, 

 grown to maturity, and commenced laying, have 

 diseased ovaries, ovaries which harbor the Bac- 

 terium pullorum, the cause, or at least one of 

 the causes, of white diarrhea, and this germ is 

 incorporated within the yolk of the egg. Chicks 

 which hatch from such infected eggs develop white 

 diarrhea soon after hatching. This is an import- 

 ant means of spreading this disease and one be- 

 fore which sanitation is powerless. 



