18 Organs of Reproduction of the Hen 19 Examining a Fowl with a Suspicious Cold. 78 84 27 28 29 30 24 Organs Affected by Tuberculosis and Blackhead 25 Chickens Affected with White Diarrhea 26 Healthy Chickens Worms in Intestinal Tract of Fowl The Parts of a Fowl Skeleton of a Fowl Post-Mortem Examination No. I 31 Post-Mortem Examination No. 2 32 Post-Mortem Examination No. 3 Post-Mortem Examination No. 4 34 Post-Mortem Examination No. 5 33 CALIFORNIA CHAPTER I GENERAL METHODS OF CONTROLLING I. Importance of Controlling Disease T HE ravages of disease add considerably to the difficulties of raising poultry in all parts of the world. It is the experience. of poultry rearers that an annual toll has to be paid in the lives of young birds and older stock. Sooner or later, in addition, an epidemic may break out and result in heavy losses and much discouragement. It is most important, therefore, to be able to recognize the symptoms and to know the causes of the many diseases to which various kinds of poultry are subject. Every practical effort should be made to reduce avoidable mortality. An unexplained death should be regarded with concern. may point to the presence of a serious disease. When there is not sufficient external It evidence for determining the cause of death, a post-mortem examination should be made (see page 98). The poultryman must know above all whether he is dealing with an infectious disease or not. The discovery that a sudden death among his fowls is due to apoplexy will set his mind at ease. On the other hand, if a case of cholera occurs, the body of the dead fowl should be burnt, and a vigorous campaign started to prevent the spread of the disease; birds showing mopishness and other suspicious symptoms should be isolated; the houses, the feed troughs, the water vessels, and the yard to which the dead fowl has had access, should all be thoroughly disinfected. 2. Dangers of Introducing Disease Perhaps more loss has been caused by introducing birds with disease into a healthy flock than by any other means. Readers will, doubtless, be able to recall occasions on which their own, or their neighbors', flocks suffered. An instance was recently related to the writer. A poultryman was offered two fowls, which he at first refused, but owing to the vagrant seller's importunity, he eventually bought the birds and let them loose among the home flock. On the following day one died; but no effort was made to discover the cause, nor was the dead fowl's body burnt. In a few days, a fowl belonging to the original flock died and, in three to four weeks after the purchase, twothirds of the stock had died. It afterwards transpired that the vendor had lost several of his fowls from cholera, and the fear of further mortalities had been his reason for being so anxious to dispose of the survivors. On every farm where poultry is kept, there should be a quarantine ward for new purchases. The most careful breeders will isolate their own birds that have returned from an exhibition, for fear they may have contracted some disease there or on the journey. |