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1 May, 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 
Poultry. 
WARTS IN CHICKENS. 
A Disease or Hor Countries. 
The following article appeared in the Bulletin de V Union Agricole Cale- 
donienne, written by an evidently competent man, who simply signs himself 
Dr. N. Itis reprinted in the Journal d Agriculture ZLropicele, and we trans- 
late it for the benefit of our poultry-keepers who are constantly having trouble 
with their chickens owing to this disease. 
In hot countries birds, and particularly barnyard fowls, are attacked by 
numerous diseases. New Caledonia, although favoured by an exceptional climate, 
does not escape the general law. As concerning poultry diseases, mention 
must be made of enteritis, cholera, diphtheria, and their results. Each of these 
would require special study. Let us note en passant that isolation of the birds 
attacked and disinfection of the poultry-houses are the most certain methods 
of saving them. Tor the present, however, we will deal with a peculiar disease 
affecting the face, called ‘The Wart Disease.” 
Symptoms. —This disease is the “ pian” of Guiana and of hot countries. It 
begins insidiously by the appearance around the bill and eyelids, and round 
the nasal apertures, of small, dark tubercles, rough and hard to the touch, 
varying in size from that of a pea to that of a small nut. These tubercles 
are only the apparent lesion. The real lesion is an uleer—a sort of cancerous 
ulcer—plainly visible in certain cases in the bird’s palate, and seen also if the 
dark crust which constitutes the wart is lifted with a pair of pincers. Then 
may be seen a rounded sanguinary ulceration, yellowish below. ‘The 
epidermic crust is merely a sign of individual resistance; it is the horny 
epidermics of the circumference of the wound which has spread, covering a 
felting of fibrin which is exuded from the small excoriation. 
‘That is the whole description of the disease, andy et itsravages in the poultry- 
ard are often considerable. Whole clutches of fifteen to twenty chickens 
tire been known to die off in a few days. How is the disease to be overcome ? 
Tn certain cases the ulcer spreads and the wart with it; the bill is covered with 
tubercles, the nasal orifices are obliterated, the bird can only breathe through 
his half-opened bill, and by its gasping one would imagine it was suffocating 
from diphtheria. In other cases the eyelids are closed, glued together by the 
tubercle; the bird becomes blind, although the orbs of vision are perfectly 
healthy. Incapable of finding its way or its food, it quickly becomes emaciated 
and dies in a few days of inamition. The disease is not deep-seated. The 
post-mortem examinations we have made have never shown that the lesion went 
beyond the organs of the senses; it is rare to find the brain or lungs affected 
by the disease. It is therefore purely a superficial, exterior lesion, but a 
dangerous one in so far as it attacks those organs which are necessary to the 
animal’s preservation, 
Cause.— W hat is the nature of the affection? Whatis its origin? How 
is it to be cured? It is produced by the inoculation of the spores of 
Aspergillus fumigatus, 2 very common mouldiness (fungus ?), and of which 
some varieties become very virulent under favourable conditions of heat and 
moisture. We have isolated aud cultivated here the dangerous mycelium ; 
this it is which attacks the epidermis and raises it so as to form a wart, and it 
is under the surface of this wart that it is found in all cases. 
* * * * * * 
Whence does the infection come? From grain and from ‘he soil. 
The surface of grain is the habitat by preference of the Aspergillus. We 
receive them in incalculable numbers in bags of rice. Scattered over the soil 
they there find the moisture and heat to maintain their virulence. 
