Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1918 — FOR THE POULTRY GROWER [ARTICLE]

FOR THE POULTRY GROWER

“Aspergillosis” Is the name of a disease that is fatal to chickens, and is the result of feeding moldy grain, writes Frank L. Pratt, extension poultry husbandman, United States department of agriculture. It is especially important that the farmers and poultry keepers should protect their chickens by giving them as sound and sweet corn as possible. There is practically no cure for this disease. As the disease develops there is a fever, diarrhea, drooping wings, great depression, suffocation and death. The symptoms are similar to those of tuberculosis, and aspergillosis and tuberculosis are both cases of what practical poultrymen often term “going light.” The spores of aspergillosis are usually introduced by moldy grain or feeding the grain in moldy litters of straw. The fungus most frequently develops In the respiratory system, mouth and lungs. To prevent it, feed sound, sweet grain. Moldy corn is particularly dangerous.