Henderson daily dispatch., 1937-08-13
STATE IS BATTLING
POUL TRY DISEASE
Years of Research Lie Be-
hind Present Fight Of
State Experts
Dally Dispatch bureau.

{
Raleigh, Aug. 13.-Years of re-
search lie behind the present fight to
/ stamp out bacillary white diarrhea,
deadly poultry disease, in North Car
DINA.
Not a serious menace in this State
| before 1922, the disease came to the
foreground after that year with the
rise of community and commercial
hatcheries. These hatcheries were
built on the basis that the eggs used
| for Matching purposes should be Sc
| cured from flocks where the birds
were of proper type, of high vigor,
were kept under proper sanitary con-
ditions, and were free of disease. AT
that time the Incidence of bacillary
white diarrhea, or pullorum disease
as it is also known, in supply flocks
was causing heavy losses in the
| chicks.
Research men at the State College
Experiment Station began work on
the problem with the goal in mind Of
formulating plan for the eradication
| of the disease.
| Previous work done by prominent
poultry disease specialists had shown
that the germ causing the disease was
| transmitted through the egg and that
chicks Matched from infected eggs
would evidence the disease. If the
chick did not die, it usually carried
the disease as a focal infection and
upon becoming an adult would con-
tinue to transmit the germ through
eggs.
The Experiment Station men four
after exhaustive research that treat
ing diseased birds was uneconomical
and inadvisable. Therefore, they re-
commended that all carriers, when
detected, be destroyed.
Culling out diseased birds has be
come a comparatively simple task.
Blood tests are made which enable in
vestigators to spot the carrier birds.
However, one test can never be
taken as being entirely accurate. The
research men found this to be true
when they first began their work. 1t
is possible for bird to show up mega
tive one month and positive the next.
Working on this theory, Roy S.
Dearstyne, now. head of the Poultry
Department at State College, or
ganized the short interval method of
testing flocks. Under the, system, as
originally devised, the flock is blood
tested every four to six weeks until
every bird in the flock has passed two
successive negative tests. In this way,
birds which showed UP negative at
first may be detached as carriers in
later tests and eliminated.
Following the findings of the re-
search workers, pressure was brought
20 bear to permit the Veterinary De-
partment Of the North Carolina De-
partment of Agriculture to blood test
the hatchery supply flocks at points
Of intensive poultry culture.
The results Of first blood-testing
regulatory work done by Department
workers were summarized in a bull
letin issued from the State College
Experiment Staten IN 1881. The work
had Town defini+ -. nat pullor ! n
disease could be eliminated from
breeding flocks and that poultry keep
ers could secure CHICKS free of the
disease. si i
AS result, pollt.. men Of the
STATE have been ahle to buy within
..;or+h Carolina cn,cKs of excel!el.
type and vigor Tree from bacillary
white diarrhea.
This year, due 10 strong pressure
from Tar Heel hatcherymen and poul-
try breeders, mora concentrated Ell
fort Is being made ~ State Depart
nent investigators to rid the State
IF this disease which Las cost pcul-
.rymcn hundreds If thousands OF
dollars.