As these pages are going through the press, Cooper Curtice’s bulletin on
_Goose Septicæmia_ comes to hand.
This affection in 1900 caused a loss of 3,200 geese in July and August
to Mr. Cornell, a Rhode Island owner. Mr. Snell lost 500.
_Bacteriology._ The blood and tissues swarmed with a minute bacillus
having the general morphological staining and biological characters of
that of chicken cholera and rabbit septicæmia. It differed from these in
the failure to infect chickens, whether inoculated or fed to them. It
proved deadly to geese, ducks, pigeons, rabbits, mice, and more slowly
to Guinea pigs. Geese were infected by inoculation or feeding of the
germs, ducks from inoculation only.
_Symptoms._ The geese were often found dead, and even in those noticed
ill, death supervened so early that no very diagnostic symptoms were
made out. The affected geese moved tardily and unsteadily, and failed to
keep with the remainder of the flock. Some burrowed the head in the dirt
and twisted it around, indicating, it was supposed, spasms of the
throat. Some were seized with the death agony in a few minutes; in
others the illness lasted for hours, and from experimental cases it was
concluded that the period from infection to death, in the majority of
cases, did not exceed thirty-six hours. Some were believed to merge into
a chronic condition, but the owner thought that none recovered. No
diarrhœa is noted.
_Lesions._ The head was the seat of marked venous and capillary
congestion, suggesting asphyxia. The bill and throat contained a large
quantity of tenacious mucus, which was especially viscid in the nose.
Extravasated blood in abundance was present in the gastro-intestinal
mucosa and contents, much of it more or less digested. At some points
there was abundant mucous exudate; at others the folds were only marked
by punctiform petechiæ, or by bloody patches formed by their
coalescence. The cæca were usually normal.
The liver showed numerous punctiform extravasations and yellow patches
of necrosis extending more or less deeply into the hepatic tissue. Other
congestions were seen in individual cases, implicating, in one instance,
the heart and pericardium, and in another the lungs. Petechiæ were
frequent on the pericardium and other mucosæ. The blood was usually
black, tarry, and with little disposition to brighten on exposure to the
air.
_Diagnosis._ It is recognized as an infection of domestic water fowl by
its attacking the larger proportion of that class of animals exposed to
it. It is supposed that those which escape do so because of immunity due
to a previous attack, or by reason of the absence of any wound of the
mouth, throat or stomach by which the germ might enter. It is
distinguished from _fowl_ (_chicken_) _cholera_ by the immunity of the
chicken in this case. It is differentiated from Klein’s _diarrhœal
enteritis_ of fowls, by the fact that neither pigeon nor rabbit is
immune. From the _duck cholera_ of Cornil and Loupet, it is diagnosed by
the immunity of the chicken only, while the rodents and pigeon suffer.
The germ is manifestly one of the family of bacilli of the colon group,
found in the different septicæmias, but sufficiently distinctive from
these other forms, in its pathogenesis, to demand a separate place in
connection with sanitary work.
_Treatment_ is hopeless from our present point of view.
_Prevention_ is the rational resort. In the case of those raising geese
from the egg, it is imperative to abandon, for the season at least, any
pastures that may have become contaminated. It would be better still to
subject such pastures to cultivated crops for one or two years. The pens
should be thoroughly disinfected or abandoned and burned. Mr. Cornell
used his infected pens for ducks without evil result. The drainage from
infected pastures or pens must be guarded against, no geese nor ducks
being allowed on land through which, or on which it passes, and no water
receiving such drainage being employed for geese. In the case of feeders
or handlers of geese who buy the birds in large numbers from many
sources, a subsidiary quarantine should be constantly maintained, by
enclosing the birds in as small groups as possible in separate pens, so
that infection in one pen will not endanger the whole flock. When
infection is shown in a pen, the diseased birds should be at once
destroyed and burned, the pen thoroughly disinfected, and the other
birds returned, or better, divided up into still smaller lots, so that
infection showing in one of these will not endanger the great number
taken from the original infected pen. The utmost care should be taken to
maintain the most perfect cleanliness in the pens of exposed and
suspected geese, and to sprinkle the floors and manure liberally with an
antiseptic, such as a solution of sulphuric acid in water (2:100), or of
phenic acid (3:100), or of a combination of the two. This will do much
to prevent the hatching of flies to act as infection-bearers, and if
these can be further excluded by screens the condition will be still
more satisfactory. Vermin of all kinds should be excluded and whenever
possible, separate feeders and attendants should be furnished for the
suspected geese, and those that have not been exposed.