Liver Disease of Poultry. 



191 



food or by means of faeces of affected birds, and perhaps also by 

 infected material derived from tuberculous human beings and 

 from cattle. The latter sources of infection, however, are not so 

 important as the former. The tendency to the disease is 

 inherited. 



Prevention. 



The present prevalence of the disease in this and other 

 countries is due to the equally widespread ignorance as to its 

 nature. The general belief is that it is caused by feeding on too 

 starchy foods. It is common, however, in places where the 

 feeding is more satisfactory and includes a liberal supply of 

 oats. The birds which die of the disease are usually thrown on 

 the dung-heap at a farm, and as the fowls have commonly the 

 run of the place they may often be infected by this means. But 

 the most frequent source of infection is the poultry-house or yard 

 which receives the droppings from affected birds containing the 

 bacilli, and the conditions as regards cleanliness, damp, and 

 absence of sunlight are frequently such as to greatly favour the 

 spread of the disease. 



The stock at a place affected with liver disease may be divided 

 into the resistant and the non-resistant. The breeding tends to 

 be done more from the former than the latter, and this natural 

 process of making the stock stronger would be greatly assisted 

 by the owner burning or deeply burying the birds which have 

 died and improving the condition of the survivors. 



To exterminate the disease, however, something more than 

 that is required. A house should be built with a run in a corner 

 of a field apart altogether from the old poultry-yard. Then 

 carefully choose the strong and healthy birds, put them in the 

 new house, and if any of them show the least indication of 

 disease they should be at once removed and the house disinfected 

 with chloride of lime {\ lb. to 1 gallon water), or quicklime, or 

 any other good disinfectant. The resistant birds will in this 

 way be separated from the weaker, and will form a foundation 

 for not only a disease-free but a disease-resisting stock. 



The hens which have been left should be killed, with the 

 exception, perhaps, of those about which a favourable doubt 

 may exist, and which may be kept in quarantine and carefully 



