LAMENESS IN CHICKENS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21906, 6 October 1936, Page 15

LAMENESS IN CHICKENS

fa tub sDrwa- QT THE PRESS. .1 through your columns, answer the humerotts' enquiries I have regarding ilarheness in fowls, and -tell' - of - the findings in relation to it? I-WsMed to-:a «bdy Of the subject through investigating the condition m a five months’ old chicken After killing and examining it, I found- the bead of the, femur (the upper bone of. the lower limb)., necrorsed (decayed), and the cavity full' of a', mass of reddish marrow. The flesh of the bird was as .tough as that of an. old specimen. From mm o%ih*-.-te,qgnt | procured an affected" fowl ItniT asked a medical man to examine it, as I wanted corroboration of my findings. He pronounced the condition in this

' >• * V ff'' 4 # I J** [ bird as ‘‘rheumatic”; it had not reached the stage of necrosis.* this condition in fowls is due to malnutrition resulting from too much confinement in wet houses,' although the inherited . factor also come# into It Most; of the;en> ..quivers report' that the condition is most acute "in’ wet weather. Just, as m human beings rheumatism is jnost acute in wet weather , and aggravated by dampness, so in fowls, chicken sarcoma—a form of 'cancer—is not uncommon. Rheumatism is,also a forerunner of cancer in man. L suggest that some of the affected birds be taken to the bacteriologist at the Public Hospital for microscopic examination. They will probably get some light thrown on chicken sarcoma and perhaps find the germ which is at work in the bone marrow—not the cause of the trouble, but its product. , . ' The malnutrition Is a"-result of too great confinement and lack of the right green foods, which lare absolutely necessary for yolk making. The lack of calcium, which is shewn by the thinness of the shells, can be supplied by plenty of grit ground shells. The condition may be inherited as I have seen it occur when the chickens are hatched from these poor eggs.- i.e. pale. yolks and thin shells. The condition is often fatal and it Is 1 best to prevent it from occurring by.allowing plenty of freedom to obtain the necessary green food, which contains the lacking potassium salts.: It is a parasitic condition. Parasites will never attack man or birds, if the necessary potassium’ salts are present, In this condition' sodium salts are predominating.—Yours, etc., M. G. DAVIES. Clifton, gumner. October 4, 1936.