The Jackson herald., 1910-01-06

That the turkeyraising industry OF
the United States is on a serious de-
cline and that the noble Thanksgiv-
ing bird reaches a higher price In the
market each succeeding year are facts
clearly recognized both by those who
have tried to raise turkeys and by
those who have sought in vain for
plump Rhode Island or Vermont tur-
key to grace their Thanksgiving table
ut the old.time price.
What, 1t may be asked. is the cause
. for this deplorable condition in the
turkey-raising industry of the coun-
Try? II is nothing less than the great
turkey epidemic disease, blackhead.
hich was first noted In Rhode Island
,me time previous to 1893. and which
Is now all but annihilated the tur-
key-raising industry in New England.
But what is worse, the disease Is rap
Idly spreading to the flocks OF the
western states, and there II Will. un-
less checked. destroy the industry OF
the west as thoroughly as II already
has done that of the Eastern states,
experts declare
A careful study OF the pathological
conditions and OF the causative organ
ism was taken up in 1907 by DR..
Philip B. Hadley. chief OF the division
OF biology at the Rhode Island sta.
tion. The results OF this investigation
revealed an organism called a coc-
cidium. This parasite is now regard
ed by DIR. Hadley as the sole cause
of the great turkey disease, and its
discovery has furnished a basis for
work on the prevention, and per
haps the treatment, of blackhead.
In turkeys the disease affects eth
er the caeca (the blind pouches of the
intestine) or the liver. In many cases
both are affected and in some In
stances other organs of the body. The
livers usually become more or less en-
larged and covered to greater or
less extent with circular yellow alb.
scesses. The caeca also became great
ly enlarged and thickened while their
delicate epithelial lining consisting
chiefly OF small cells, through the
medium Of which the nourishment is
absorbed from the food into the body
is largely destroyed In many places
thus accounting for the great emacia
tion OF the diseased bird. Often the
open into the inside OF the body, and
thus cause what is known as septic
peritonitis, which has invariably q
fatal termination.
All these diseased conditions are
brought about by the coccidium liv
ing and multiplying in the intestines
caeca and liver of the infected birds
It is seldom that a turkey once in
fected RECEIVERS.
After the coccidium (A) has enter
ed the body of the turkey II divides
into four minute, pointed bodies called
sporoblasts OBJ, then into the sporo
zottes, or real spores (C), which arist
from the latter. These spores, aftel
having been liberated in the intes
tines by the action of the digestiv,
fluids, quickly look about for tn,
small cells which line the inside O
the intestines. and then. by means o
a slow, squirming motion they for
chilly penetrate these cells CD. Her,
located and living at the expense o
the protoplasmic contents of the cells
they grow rapidly. and soon becom,
the so-called schizonts (E).
In these bodies after a time new
spores are formed (F), and thes,
spores are finally liberated from thu
host cell In order that they may entel
new cells (G). n these fresh hos
cells the spores which have entered
may now either form another gen
Grafton OF schizonts, like those from
which they themselves arose, or the,
may do something quite different, ant
this last phenomenon is the methot
by which the coccidia perpetual,
themselves.
At certain time the spores begir
to develop into male and female ele