INTRODUCTION 
The problem of disease control has been a subject of research and study 
since the early ages. The advancement of civilization has seen monumental 
achievement in the way of prevention and cure. Man’s energies have not 
been expended alone on his own creature, but has extended to all branches 
of livestock, plants and other animate objects that suffer from invasion of 
other biologic orders. 
The poultry world, like other orders, suffers from devastating contagiums. 
The likelihood of the spread of disease among poultry is enhanced by their 
living conditions. Intensive raising and forced production has separated the 
domestic fowl so widely from its original primitive condition that its suscep¬ 
tibility to disease is greatly increased. 
In North Carolina the poultry industry has experienced rapid growth in 
the past twenty years. The state presents unexcelled soil and climatic 
advantages for this branch of livestock production, and is within a reasonably 
short distance of excellent markets. 
Salmon’s original survey of diseases in poultry in 1880 showed eight of 
twenty-two counties in North Carolina reporting the loss of birds from 
cholera, Robeson County, in particular, reporting the loss of thousands of 
birds from cholera and sore head annually. It is evident from recent re¬ 
searches that a large amount of the disease reported as cholera was avian 
typhoid. Contagious disease outbreaks have kept pace with the growth of 
the industry, and there has been no organized effort to keep them within 
control. Such a condition is prone to open the industry to serious losses 
because of the contagious nature of most of the avian diseases of bacterial 
origin, and the fact that the soil occupied by diseased birds retains virulent 
germs for an undetermined length of time, making it hazardous to introduce 
new birds on such infected land. 
The information of the average poultryman as to poultry diseases is 
meagre. Many times disease outbreaks are allowed to become well established 
before the seriousness of the condition is recognized, and then efforts at 
eradication of the disease are usually unscientific and ill handled, and heavy 
loss ensues. 
A rapid correction of such conditions is impossible. It must be brought 
about by education through all possible agencies. Thorough training of County 
Agents and Agricultural High School teachers in the prevention and diagnosis 
of poultry diseases, and a coordination of the extension and experiment sta¬ 
tion activities with such agencies should be helpful in reducing the high mor¬ 
tality rate that is found in the poultry industry today. It is on the hopes of 
a brighter tomorrow that the efforts of today are founded. 
