406
Important Helminth Parasites of Poultry
valuable birds, intra-tracheal injection of 1 c. c. Lugol's iodine or 5 per cent
aquous salicylic acid, garlic oil, creosote and sodium salicylate are tried.
Fumigation of such substances as heated carbolic acid, camphor, asafoetida,
tobacco smoke, or burning sulphur is of little value and may be even dangerous.
Sodium salicylate at the rate of three drm. to every quart of drinking water
or pounded garlic in the proportion of one bulb per day added to the food of
ten birds may result in the expulsion of the worm. However, none of these
methods is entirely satisfactory. Recently, treatment by the inhalation of
Barium Antimony Tartrate suspended in the air has been reported to be over 98
per cent efficacious. The bird or birds to be treated are placed in a glass jar.
A small amount of the powdered substance is sprinkled on the head of each
bird, and some put at the bottom of the jar, which is then covered with a
towel. The birds are usually exposed to the drug for 10 minutes, and, during
this time, the powder at the bottom of the jar is blown forcibly in the air two
to four times, by means of a large rubber bulb fitted to a glass tube inserted
into the jar. The treated birds manifest symptoms of increased coughing or
gaping and mild depression for a few hours, but these are soon followed by
improvement in their condition. Prevention is much more important than
treatment. Infested birds should be killed and the heads, and respiratory
and digestive organs burnt. Chickens acquire infection from turkeys,
wild birds or from eggs and larvæ carried over in the soil from previous
infection. For about four to six weeks chicks should be raised on board floors
and the droppings should be removed at regular intervals. They should
never be kept on the same ground with turkeys. Moist localities, where
earth-worms, snails and slugs are likely to occur, should be avoided. New
chicks should be purchased out of clean flock and quarantined. Infection
from wild birds should be avoided.
Another related worm—Cyathastoma bronchialis—occurs in the trachea
and bronchi of the duck, goose and swan. These worms are not permanently
in copula. The parasite is very harmful, especially to young geese, in which
it may produce inappetence, emaciation, dyspnoea and asphyxiation. Treat-
ment and prophylaxis are the same as in the case of the ' forked worm '.
Several genera of round-worms are known to infest the crop and the
gizzard of poultry. The most remarkable of these are the members of the
genus Tetrameres and some related genera, which present unique sexual
dimorphism. Tetramerids occur in the proventriculus of the fowl, duck,
pigeon, turkey and a large number of wild water birds. The females after
copulation enter the glandular stomach and become globular in shape, being
distended with eggs, and are blood red in colour. The males on the other
hand retain throughout life the usual elongate and cylindrical nematode
form, and are found free in the lumen of the proventriculus. The fertilization
usually takes place in the lumen of the stomach, though at times the males
are known to follow the females into the gland temporarily for copulation.
The female comes to lie in the gland in such a position that the tail protrudes
into the duct of the gland to facilitate the passage of the eggs, and the head