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Show Protect Flocks From Parasites Worms Causing Greatly Increased In-creased Losses to the Poultry Industry. The recent studies of parasitologists of Hie United States Department of Agriculture are o scientific Interest Inter-est nud of practical value to poultry owners. Referring to a 10 per cent decline In the chickens of the 102S hatch compared with that of the previous pre-vious year, Pr. Klolse Ii. Cram, of the bureau of nnlmnl Industry, raises these questions: Why this decrease In 92S? Was It due to casualties caused by accidents and disease, or the clog-Ins clog-Ins out of flocks, or the cutting down of their size by .poultry raisers, and If the latter, why this closlnj. out or cutting down? Were diseases, and especially parasitic diseases, an - Important Im-portant Item? Serious Inroads of Parasites. In answer to these questions,. Doctor Doc-tor Cram cites evidence showing that purasites hne been making more serious seri-ous Inroads on the poultry Industry of the country than Is commonly realized, though losses are sometimes difficult to explain until scientific observations ob-servations "are made. -"In", general,"; says Doctor Cram, "the worm parasites para-sites of poultry seem to be causing greatly Increased losses to the Indus-try. Indus-try. "A poultry man In. Washington; P. C:t for Instance, lost. 75 per cent- of -several . .hundred.-. clUck3; from.. ije-s.. . in vestlgatlon showed that this loss resulted re-sulted from the 113 of one f' the poul-tryman's poul-tryman's fields, for alxmt 24 houVs; rfs-a" rfs-a" resting place fur a flock of turkeys being driven overland. The chickens became Infested by gapewonns left by the turkey flock. In addition to producing pro-ducing the noticeable symptoms of gaping, by obstructing the windpipe, gapeworms also weaken their victims by sucking blood. "Tapeworms have been named as the cause of death of 50 per cent of the chickens In some Maryland flocks. There have been correspondingly heavy losses of domestic geese In Oregon Ore-gon from a closely related parasite. In addition to causing death, tapeworms tape-worms bring about emaciation, reduced re-duced egg production, and more or less complete paralysis. Worms Kill Turkeys. "Slender, threadlike worms In the crops of turkeys were found to have caused the death of three-fourths of the birds In a flock ,f 200. and the sur vivors were scarcely worth marketing. The gizzard worm, one of a general class of roundworms, Is also serious because It attacks the walls of the gizzard and Interferes vIth the food grinding function' Control measures tc check Inroads of parasites on poultry flocks," says Doctor Cram, "consist largely In sanitary san-itary equipment and management of flocks in such a way that the life cycle of parasites Is broken so ihat Infc-ticm Infc-ticm cannot get back to the fowls. I'rompt disposal of droppings from poultry houses, plowing up or scrap-lag scrap-lag off the lop soil of chicken, yards, t!ie use of a rotatl ..1 system "of yards, the Judicious use of disinfectants, and providing sanitary feed and water containers, con-tainers, are among some of the practical prac-tical means of prevention. "Even though poultry raising has been highly successful, it Is unwise to relax precautions against parasitic foes f poultry. Cy Increased attention and knowledge, the ravages of parasite enemies may be checked and" poultry given a better chance. |