ABSTRACTS
Studies on the control of the poultry cestode Davainea proglottina (Dav.)
P. P. LEVINE (1938) Cornell Vet, XXVIII, 220-227
SEVERAL drugs have been claimed by various workers in the past to have anthel-
mintic efficacy against the poultry tapeworm (Davainea proglottina), but in many cases
the results obtained by two or more workers are decidedly different. This lack of agree
ment is obviously due, in many instances, to the employment of inadequate and inaccu.
rate techniques. The author has carried out, under well-controlled conditions, anthel-
mintic studies with a number of drugs and proprietary preparations. In addition, some
studies on the resistance of infected slugs (the intermediate hosts) to winter conditions
and refrigeration temperatures are reported. During the course of experiments, the
author has made a very important observation, viz., under optimum conditions, each
tapeworm produces, every 24 hours, no more than one gravid segment which is voided
in the fæces. This information was utilized in the anthelmintic studies. The number
ofscolices discharged was used as an index of the anthelmintic efficacy. This was also
verified by killing the birds after treatment and counting the number of worms that were
unaffected. The drugs and the proprietary preparations used in the experiments were
Kamala, Oleoresin-aspidii, Rotenone, Hexyl-resorcinol, Santonin, Turpentine and Paraffin
oil, Pelletierine-tannate, Betanapthol, Carbon-tetrachloride, Tetra-chlorethylene,
Arecoline-hydrobromide, Oil of Chenopodium and Paraffin oil, Areca Nut, Jen-sal worm
powder, Iodine Vermicide (Merck), Thymol Nicotine tablets, Kamala Nicotine tablets
and Rosa Caps. As a result of this careful experimentation it was found that the only
drug that has some value against Davainea proglottina is arecanut. All other reputed
drugs and proprietary preparations were found to be ineffective against this worm.
The slug (Agriolimax agrestis) infected with cysticercoids of the tapeworm survived
the severe winter of 1935-36 in the United States of America, where in February the
temperature was sub-zero for seven days. The infected slugs survived eight days at
3°C. to 5°C. and proved infective to chickens. Subsequent exposure to—I C. for 24
hours was lethal for slugs and the cysticercoids. (G. D. B.).
Nutrition and reproduction. CHARLES CROWTHER (1938), J. Mins. Agri. 45,
797
THE author observed that until recent years the major causes of reproductive troubles
were commonly sought in the field of disease, but conclusive evidence is now available
that in very many cases the basic causative factor primarily arises from faulty nutri-
tion.
Under-nutrition may arise from a general deficiency of energy supply or from defi-
ciency of one or more of the specific essential factors such as vitamins or minerals or from
the combined effects of more than one deficiency and the nature of the reaction upon
reproductive activity will vary with the character of the nutritional defects. In the
female an effect that seems to be common to all types of nutritive deficiencies is a dis-
turbance of the œstrus cycle, leading to irregularity or in severe cases, to actual cessa-
tion.
( 459 )