29 
Epizootic among Parrots. 
During September and October, 1915, a small epidemic 
started in the parrot house and carried off five birds. 
The principal conditions were rhinitis and sinusitis of 
the related structures not unlike the lesions seen in 
human infections of the same regions. Segregation and 
sacrifice of the infected birds stopped the epidemic in 
fifteen days. The organism causing this outbreak was of 
the hemorrhagic septicemia group, but the exact species 
could not be determined. This finding of itself is in- 
teresting but gains in significance in view of the second 
^.mall epidemic in January and February, 1916. During 
these two months eight birds succumbed and several 
more were droopy. This infection was a general one 
in the body of the bird and suggested fowl septicemia 
altnough no bacteria could be isolated from the blood 
stream. From the organs and local inflammations {air 
sacs) however, a bacterium indistinguishable from the 
bacillus of roup (Moore) was isolated and this germ 
varied only in unimportant details from the first men- 
tioned so far as we had data on the latter. The bacterium 
of the second infection has been worked out and made 
into a vaccine with the idea of injecting it should the 
disease break out again. The lesions in these birds are 
not that of roup or diphtheria nor of infectious leukemia, 
also associated with the hemorrhagic septicemia group 
of organisms. It is to be considered as a simple infection 
with this bacterium and not as conforming with any 
ordinary recognized specific disease of birds. 
tight capsuk. Stellate veins are prominent; architecture clear; no apparent increase 
in connective tissue. The intestinal mucosals irregular, mottled pink, yellow and brown 
with furrows and areas of erosion. The lumen is crowded with ascaris and it seems probable 
that they had something to do with the enteritis. Upon removing the calvarium a marked 
craniotabes of the under surface is found and with it a deep red and purple staining of the 
outside of the dura and inner table of skull. These changes are most marked along the 
longitudinal sinuses cl'. the internal occipital protuberance and along the left parietal region. 
The dura on the left side is distinctly congested. This is also true of the pia. The brain 
and its base seem normal. Pituitary body is 5 x 7 x 4 mm, soft]and yellowish pink. The 
joints are well formed; contain a sticky yellow-brown synovial fluid in excess. Lining 
is normal. Epiphyses are almost entirely free of bone deposit but the cartilaginous rim 
is normal except in thickness; spongy bone is scant. The marrow is uniformly hemorr- 
hagic. Osteneogenetic zone is straight but extremely narrow and highly vascular. The 
changes in the ribs are comparable to the above. Two microscopic sections show secondary 
colloid goitre in one diffuse in character, in the other nodular. The nodular one is due not 
to anything inherent in the goitre but to a chronic interstitial fibrosis separating the islands 
of thyroid tissue. In the nodular growth few of the acini contain colloid while in the diffuse 
growth most of them contain colloid. From the density of this substance no absorption 
is going on. 
