Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1926-09-18
Accedited FlOcks On
DiarrhOea Free List


Rhode Island Reds, Mrs. Fred Foss,
Mt. Vernon; F.. H. Hammond, Mt.
Vernon; White Wyandottes Mrs.
Stanley Hight. Readfeld: Mrs. Han
nah Raymond, Winthrop.-That is
the way one reads the Kennebec
County section of the bacillary white
diarrhea free list issued this spring
by the Department of Bacteriology
of the College Of Agriculture, Univer-
sity Of Maine. These four poultry
keepers had 1869 birds and sold 12,-
936 Matching eggs and 4,400 day old
chicks.
Twenty eight other fiocks in Maine
were also on the list. The combined
sales of all the fiocks were I66,O8O
Matching eggs and 142.397 day old
chicks.
These focks are known as ac-
credited focks. An accredited flock
is flock in which every bird has
been tested and found to be free from
are made by the department of bac-
of the College of Agriculture
University of Maine, which is
cooperatinge very closely with the
Agricultural Extension Service in
stamping out this costly poultry
disease.
Bacillary white diarrhea is the
most serious disease of young chick
ems with which poultry keepers have
to contend, and seems to be on the
increase in Maine. 1t causes losses
annually of thousands and thousands
of dollars. The loss is not only in
the value of the chicks alope, but
also because it cripples the poultry
operations of the loser for the whole
year. Early Matched pullets lay best
and pay best, and even If the chick
ems which die are replaced by others,
the fiocks prove much less profitable
than would have been the case had
the early Matched chicks grown to
maturity.
No one wants to loose chicks and
money through white diarrhea and
no one need do so. Scientists con-
nected with various agricultural eX-
pertinent stations have determined
the nature of the disease and have
worked out a method of procedure,
which if faithfully followed, will give
complete control.
These scientists have discovered
that the cause of the disease Is a
very plinute organism and that the
disease is highly contagious. The
presence of few infected chicks
may be enough to cause the death
of the whole flock.
The peculiar thing about bacillary
white diarrhea is that, while most
of the deaths take place between the
fourth day and the fourth week OF
the chickens life, birds which re-
oy,-inx M
never afterward free from the dis
ease although they may seem per-
fectly healthy ir every way.
The active bacilli live in the egg
producing organs of these carriers
these Typhoid Marys as it we're
and enter the egg as it is in the
process Of formation. and thus are
in the egg when it is laid. So far
as is known this is the only poultry
disease which is transmitted through
the egg.
The period of incubation for the
disease is much the same as that
for the chicken, and so while the
youngster may not be born dead
it is born with death fixed upon 1t,
and usually succumbs in very few
days.
There is no known cure for the
disease once the chicken has con-
tracted it, although there are some
methods which may be used to re-
duce the percentage of mortality
such as removing sick chickens at
once, feeding skim milk, careful
sanitation and the use of an anti
septic in the drinking water.
The way to control the disease is
to kill the carriers an, use for breed
ers only birds which are absolutely
free from disease The big problem
is to tell the healthy birds from the
carriers for they all look alike. Again
the scientists have come to the res
cue. They have worked out very
simple blood test which will tell be-
yond question whether the mature
hen or pullet is carrier or not. In
Maine this test is, being made by the
department of bacteriology and vet
inerary science at the University
of Maine and a list of disease free
f1ocks is maintained. No flock is
placed on this list unless every bird
on the farm has been tested and not
one single reactor has been found.
The flock is accredited only until a
new crop of pullets is raised to lay
ing age, and then only provided no
stock has been bought in from f1ocks
which have not been accredited.
Any poultryman may secure this
list from the Farm Bureau Office