WORMS 499 



Few birds are entirely free from worms of some kind. Where 

 the stock is vigorous they usually cause very little incon- 

 venience. It is usually only in birds that are somewhat 

 lacking in vigor that the worms reproduce with sufficient 

 rapidity to constitute a menace to the host. 



The symptoms of worms are so general that it is usually 

 impossible to diagnose their presence unless they are observed 

 in the intestine upon a postmortem examination, or are 

 noticed in the droppings. When worms are observed, it may 

 usually be assumed that the difficulty has permeated the 

 flock fairly completely. Ackert^ recommends the following 

 for flock treatment: "To a gallon of a mixture of wheat 

 and oats, add a small teaspoonful of concentrated lye, with 

 sufficient water to prevent scorching. Cook slowly for two 

 hours and cool. Fast the birds to be treated for flfteen 

 hours, then give them all of this mixtiu-e that they will eat, 

 providing an abimdance of water for them to drink. After 

 twelve to twenty hours give a second dose in the same 

 manner." 



During the time of treatment the birds should be confined 

 so that all of the droppings may be collected and burned. 

 About forty-eight hours after the second dose has been 

 given the quarters should be thoroughly disinfected, and, if 

 possible, the birds allowed a grassy run where chickens 

 have not been previously kept. The desirability for this 

 later precaution arises from the fact that with some of the 

 worms the earth worm appears to be a host at one stage 

 in the life-history. It is, therefore, desirable after ridding 

 the fowl's of the parasites, by the method suggested above, 

 to have them run on ground where the likelihood of the 

 earth worms being infested is slight. On the general farms 

 where the fowls have free range, as they should have, it is, 

 of course, impossible to accomplish this, and permanent 

 relief from worm infestations can only arise from the breeding 

 of stock of sufficient vigor to prevent any great multiplication 

 of the parasites. 



' Parasitologist, Kansas Experiment Station. 



