i6o 



Gapes axd Worms of Poultry. 



when kept on damp earth and sand, hatch out in from seven 

 to forty days, depending on temperature and moisture. 



I experimented in 1895 an( ^ 1S96 with the eggs, and 

 hatched embryos of this worm, and found that chicks, pullets, 

 and cockerels readily took the disease when fed with a 

 number of either ova or of the small white embryo worms. 

 How they enter the trachea I do not know ; whether they 

 enter the crop or stomach first or whether they are detained in 

 the mouth, and thus go straight to the trachea, I could not find 

 out. In from twenty to twenty-four days I found fully- 

 developed worms in the birds. There is thus no necessity 

 for an intermediate host. Ehlers* was the first to show this ; 

 he fed birds with Syngamus ova, and in ten days found 

 coupled worms in them. Megninf also has given " gapes 

 to a parrot by feeding it with the ova from a pheasant. 



There is no doubt but that earthworms swallow large 

 numbers of the eggs and embryos with the large quantities 

 of soil they take in, and that many gape germs enter fowls 

 in that way ; but the earthworm is no second host, although 

 numbers of the ova and embryos may accidentally be found 

 in them. Earthworms act as carriers, as it were, of the 

 disease. 



Several other theories regarding intermediate hosts, such as 

 the connection between lice and gapes, mollusca and other 

 possible intermediaries, need only be mentioned, as there is at 

 present no evidence in favour of the necessity or even 

 accidental occurrence of the Gape Worm in any stage in 

 them. On the other hand, it is known that ova and embryos 

 given to perfectly healthy birds will give them syngamosis. 



The eggs may be kept often for a great length of time with- 

 out developing*, a,nd some of the embryos kept in damp 

 ground have given a bird the disease after six months 

 keeping. 



Symptoms of Gapes. 

 The symptoms of gapes are well known, but are not 

 always diagnostic unless taken in toto. The yawning' or 



* Vorlaiifige Mittheilungen iiber d. Entwickelung von S. trachcalis. Sitzber. d. 

 Phys. Med. Soc. Erlanger. p. 43. 1872. 



t Mem. sur. l'Epizootie Vermineuse des Faisanderies, Rec. d. Med. Yet.. 1S82. 



