Roup. 145 



keeping up the strength of the birds and, by so doing, increasing 

 their powers of resistance. This is best accomplished by- 

 giving the birds an increased amount of meat nourishment in 

 their food, and by adding to their soft food once a day small 

 doses of sulphate of iron as a tonic, in the proportion of a 

 quarter of a grain to half a grain for each bird according to age. 



Roup. 



Eoup or diphtheritic roup, which was at one time always 

 considered to be the result of a neglected cold, is now recognised 

 to be a highly infectious disease caused by a specific parasite, 

 a small micro-organism known as a coccidium, one of the group 

 of protozoa. In Messrs. Ward and Gallagher's work on the 

 " Diseases of Domesticated Birds " this disease is referred 

 to as " avian diphtheria," but it must not be confoimded 

 with human diphtheria. Theobald in his " Parasitic Diseases 

 of Poultry " shows that Messrs. Colin and Eoux demonstrated 

 that the microbe of chicken diphtheria is not the same as that 

 which produces a similar disease in man. 



The disease is distinguished by the appearance of white 

 creamy patches in the mouth and pharynx ; the surfaces of the 

 growths are slimy and the mouth and nostrils get filled with 

 discharge which becomes viscid and plugs the nasal passages. 

 In some cases the discharge spreads to the eyes, which become 

 inflamed and swollen, with the lids gummed together ; occasion- 

 ally the disease may commence in the eyes. The inflammation 

 and growths in the throat, if not attended to, enter the 

 oesophagus and trachea and thus cause death. The birds affected 

 early show extreme dullness and loss of vitaUty ; they become 

 thin, and death may occur in severe cases in two or three days, 

 or the bird may linger for a week or more with progressively 

 marked debility. It is not a common disease among pheasants, 

 but it has been observed both amongst pheasants, quails 

 and various wild birds (Ward and Gallagher) ; but if it makes 

 its appearance in the aviaries the first step is to at once isolate 

 the infected birds, removing those that are healthy on to fresh 



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