The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-28
WHITE DIRRHOEA IN CHICKENS
Sour Milk a Specific in Treatment of
 This Disease.

Sour milk, which Prof. Metchnik off has shown to be an effective agent ill the postponement of old age in hu- man beings by means of the tactic acid bacilIi which it contains, has been found to be a specific in the treat ment of the disease known as white diarrhea in young chickens. More than fifty per cent. of tho chicks matched in the United States have been dying from this disease within the first three or four days after com | ing out of their shells and the pouI- 1 try business was apparently doomed. pr. L. F. Rettger Of Yale and Prof. W. F. Kirkpatrick of Connecticut 1 Agricultural College have worked on 1 the subject without 1etup until now the bacterium puIlorum which caused | it, has been isolated, it's origin deter mined, the means and manner of in- 1 lection discovered and the measures | of prevention and cure clearly estab- i ished-to the end that the poultry 1 business has received a new lease Of l life.
 A very interesting bulletin giving the results of the most recent work in this line of Dr. Rettger and Prof. Kirkpatrick has just been issued by the Agricultural Experiment Station at Storrs, Conn.,, for distribution to those interested. A third name which appears on it is that of F. H. Stone
 
 husbandry at the college preceding Prof Kirkpatrick.
 From the beginning of the investf- gations into this subject the Storrs Experiment Station has taken the lead and done the principal work When Dr. Rettger isolated the bac- terium pullorum in 1899, the poultry world was aghast at the revelations as to the prevalence of the disease and utterly at q loss regarding it: and it is only since the work at Storrs and New Haven has brought such substantial results that confidence in the future of the poultry industry has returned.
 At first it was believed that defec- tive incubation was the trouble but the Storrs Stations experiments have proven that the original source of in- lection is the ovary of the mother hen and that chicks from infected eggs have the diseasA when they are hatch ed- Infection from chick to chick takes place within their first three or four days, but probably not after that. l Even if infected chicks live, they are 1 usually stunted, weak and poor layers. |
 Previous experiments have been largely given over to esta ablishing the l Storrs Stations theory of the disease i on solid grounds, but this new buIle- tin carries the matter to the logical | conclusions as to how infection is
  disease and how to successfully treat | birds which become infected
 While chicks are less liable to the 1 infection as they grow older, it has been made clear at Storrs that mature 1 stock can receive the infection from l hen to hen or by means of the litter 1 in the poultry houses and the bul1e- | tin details the interesting experiments which have led the scientists to this conclusion.
 The theory upon which Prof. Metch- nikof proceeds, that of the replace m ent of putrefa ctive- bacteria in the digestive tract by beneficent organ isms, is well suited to this fight gai1lst the bacterium pu1Iorurn and most in teresting is the account of the re- auction of mortality among chickens infected with it by the use of sour, milk. Gains in weight and vitality were marked and the aid given by the tactic acid organisms to nature in throwing off the malignant baci1li was plainly indicated.
 z The bulletin lays some stress on the importance of breeding from sound and unaffected stock as a means of the disease from the flock on the farm and recommends that it | be made legal offence to sell or ex- change eggs, chicks, or mature stock from flocks known to be infected.