4e 



[July, 1912. 



L8VE STOCK. 



POULTRY NOTES. 



(By F. A. V.) 



Disease op Turkeys. 



It is to be regretted that, in regard to 

 poultry-farming, as much attention both 

 in Ceylon and in India is not paid to the 

 rearing of turkeys as one would desire ; 

 and yet it is very profitable fancying. In 

 order, therefore, to encourage turkey- 

 farming, so far as is prevalent at the 

 present day, I shall treat below of the 

 diseases to which turkeys are generally 

 prone with suggestions as to the remed- 

 ical measures to be taken in each case : 

 Turkeys are prone to all the complaints 

 which attack fowls but through the 

 wider range of turkeys, smaller flocks 

 and their being kept in a less confined 

 state than fowls, these diseases are not 

 so common among turkeys as among 

 fowls, the recorded instances of attacks 

 being largely amongst flocks where an 

 attempt has been made to keep them in 

 comparative confinement. 



Roup. 



The chief causes of this disease are 

 damp, cold, insanitary conditions and 

 contagions. Turkeys frequently get it 

 through contact with fowls and, once a 

 single specimen is infected, the disease 

 becomes epidemic, the whole brood of 

 youngsters thus being lost. 



Roup can be readily separated into 

 three varieties — simple catarrh or cold, 

 and catarrhal roup and diphtheritic roup. 

 The first of these is not contagious and 

 readily succumbs to treatment but the 

 second and third are contagious, 



A contagious disease is one dependent 

 for its existence on some specific organism 

 and catarrh does not come under this 

 catalogue, it being simply a sold, the 



evidences or symptoms being a clear 

 watery discharge from the mouth and 

 nostrils. It is easily amenable to treat- 

 ment. The turkeys, whether young or 

 old, should be removed to a warm place, 

 free from drought and the head, face and 

 eyes bathed daily with a warm solution 

 of boracic acid. Sometimes, diarrhoea 

 accompanies the colds ; 3 to 7 drops of 

 chlorodyne will cure this. 



The earliest symptoms of contagious 

 catarrhal roup are similar to those of the 

 above, except that the watery discharge 

 becomes thicker and the eyes and nost- 

 rils often become glued up by the hard- 

 ening of the discharge. If not treated 

 the discharge becomes of a solid, cheesy 

 nature in the nostrils and cavities of the 

 eyes, the membrane of these cavities 

 and the nostrils and palate become in- 

 flamed and the cheesy matter grows to 

 such an extent that it often crushes the 

 eyeball right out of its socket. It is 

 nothing unusual to see an occasional 

 turkey with but one eye, the other having 

 been destroyed in the way mentioned. 



Treatment consists in isolating all in- 

 fected birds and bathing the face and 

 nostrils as in catarrh. All the cheesy 

 matter must be removed from the nos- 

 trils and eyes and the parts washed or 

 syringed with warm water. The throat 

 must be examined and, if there be any 

 cheesy growth, it must be removed and 

 the place painted with a 2 per cent, solu- 

 tion of carbolic acid. Diphtheritic roup 

 is a contagious disease. The most ob- 

 vious difference between diphtheritic 

 roup and catarrhal roup is that, in the 

 former, the living mucous membranes of 

 the mouth and nostrils become covered 

 with a creamy-colored false membrane 

 which is so closely united to the mucous 

 membrane that the latter bleeds if the 

 false growth is removed. 



The treatment of diphtheritic roup is 

 unsatisfactory and, unless the birds are 

 very valuable, it is better to destroy them 



