ABSTRACTS
249
In control work with the intestinal worms in poultry, carried out by E. M. Alderman in
co-operation with the division of poultry husbandry of the station, it was established that the
colloidal iodine suspensoid containing 1.8 per cent. 1 2 and 4 per cent. gum arabic is apparently 100
per cent. efficient in killing and removing ascaridia and the various species of tapeworms, thus offer-
ing a substitute for the iodine vermicide (an iodine-protein compound carrying absorbed iodine),
with a possible reduction in cost of about 33 per cent. The results of these and numerous similar
experiments are considered to have established the fact that dosing the birds with either the iodine
vermicide or the colloidal iodine does not throw them off egg production. The results of daily
feeding of colloidal iodine to birds in excess of the normal iodine requirements indicate that
in cases of intestinal parasitism, either worms or coccidia, a marked improvement in the birds'
condition may be brought about. In one experiment a flock of 40 adult birds heavily infested with
coccidia and harboring a medium number of roundworms was divided into two nearly equal groups
that were fed alike with the exception that one received daily an average of 5 mg. of iodine in the
form of powdered colloidal iodine. At the end of 60 days the control lot showed 6 paralyzed birds
and 1 death and an average loss of weight per bird of 0.51 lb. In the lot receiving the iodine
there were no cases of paralysis, no deaths and each bird showed an average gain of 0.38 lb.
The work with diseases of poultry is next reported upon by H. J. Stafseth and W. L. Mallmann,
their work relating largely to pullorum disease. As a result of experimental work in routine ob-
servations of over 40,000 agglutination tests for pullorum disease, they conclude that it is no longer
necessary to employ a two-tube test. By employing an antigen with a turbidity equal to tube
No. 1 of McFarland's nephelometer and containing 2 c. c. of a 2 per cent. solution of NaOH per 100
c. c. of antigen they succeeded in eliminating zone phenomina or proagglutinations. As a result,
the one-tube test of a serum antigen mixture of 1: 50 is now employed, thus saving labor and
material to the extent of from 25 to 30 per cent. The finding by Mallmann et al. (E. S. R. 60. p.
374) that brilliant green in 1: 1,000,000 dilution will inhibit the growth of Escherichid coli and
completely prevent the growth of most contaminating organisms commonly encountered in the
tissues and intestinal contents of poultry and yet allow Salmonella pullorum to grow unhindered
made possible the isolation of S. pullorum from the intestinal mucosa and contents where there
was a failure to find it in the heart, liver, or kidneys. In badly decomposed specimens cultures of
this organism were successfully obtained from the bone marrow of the femur.
It is reported that leukemia is a disease that is becoming very common in chickens in the State.
The results of bacteriological and pathological examinations of 1,044 consignments of diseased
poultry, including 2,482 specimens, are reported in tabular form. Of 18,747 samples to which the
agglutination test for pullorum disease was applied, 2,217 were positive, 1,393 doubtful, 46 cloudy,
and 134 unfit.
Report of work in animal pathology.—E. T. HALLMAN (Michigan Sta. Rpt. 1928, pp.
152-154).-- This is a brief report of the work under way by the section of animal pathology in co-opera-
tion with the section of bacteriology. Researches have definitely shown that Bacterium abortus infec-
tion in the udder is associated with pathological processes in the udder, and the fact that B. abortus
is present in the udder of heifers that have never conceived suggests that there may be some relation
between udder lesions and sterility in the heifer. In a study of several cases of sterile heifers, in
which B. abortus and lesions were demonstrated in the udder of some but no infection in the uterus
or ovaries, there were changes in the ovary which appeared to be pathological and which may
explain sterility in those cases. The ovarian changes consisted of degeneration and disintegration
of the stratum granulosum of the devoloping follicles. [From United States Dept. of Agric., Expt.
Stn. Rec., Vol. 64, No. 3.]