—Lancaster Farming, Friday, Sept. 6, 1957 12 Basic Studies Helping Pinpoint Location of Blackhead Parasites Basic studies are helping pin- point location of blackhead para bles m turkeys This should lead to timing of drugs to knock out liihe organisms when they aie most \ Ulnerable Much of the USDA work on this costly and serious disease is being earned on with a harmless strain of the blackhead parasite Use of this strain has helped resarchers to turn up other new and useful information on disease aspects that are obscure when the disease is severe Blackhead is caused by a mi- croscopic parasite Histomonas meleagndis that attacks the two cece (blind gut) and liver of turkeys and sometimes chickens The histomonad spends part of its life in the eggs of the cecal worm- Heterakis gallinae a parasite that’s commonly found in the ceca of turkeys and chickens Cecal worm infected birds pass large numbers of microscopic eggs in their droppings If the birds have blackhead, these worms eggs may carry histomon ads Turkeys and chickens acquire blackhead by swallowing the in fected worm eggs with soil, feed, or water Infected turkeys may die in large numbers Losses re sult also from slow gains, mar keting delays, and carcass down- DAIRYMEN! 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Stauffer Diesel Refrigeration GORDONVILLE, RDI. grading Chickens aie not very suscep tible to blackhead but may carry cecal worms, which are parasi tized by the histomonads If chick ens and turkeys are laised toge ther, susceptble turkeys can easily acquire blackhead Seveial years ago, ARS re searchers at the Agricultural Re search Centei,' Beltsville, Md, found that some of their turkeys had blackhead organisms but showed no symptoms and thrived normally Vaitetions m vnulence of the blackhead parasite had long been lecogmzed, and Beltsville scientists at first thought the strain was merely attenuated or weakened Research with 600 turkeys and 300 chickens for three years proved it was a true—but harm less—strain of the blackhead 6r gansm The only obvious differ ences are that the harmless form is generally larger and has more flagella (whip-like structures) Work with this non-pathogemc strain is helping parasitologist Everett Lund and associates to study, among other things, the probable timing of medication in relation to the life cycle of the worm and histomonad. It’s important to know when to tieat infected birds, what kind of CKS PULLETS Now! Operates at' lower cost Ph. Intercourse SO 8-8531 UAtotg Available ocks mpshires F, Oxford, Pa. 286 Collect Costs less to install 4- <U * •“ ** r * ?.* v*v* v »!, SEVENTY-TWO WESTERN EWES from the Sand Hills of Nebraska are getting use to the rolling hills of Lancaster Coun ty this week They were purchased by Robert Harnish. R 2 Conestoga, to develop a commercial herd. He has a herd of Shropshires artd plans to use his Shrop- irugs to use, how to use them, and for how long For instance, medi cation can be used to destroy either the cecal worm or black head parasite. To be really effective in con trolling blackhead by acting on the cecal worm, drugs must do one of several things (1) kill the larvae before they get m the cecal membrane, (2) weaken cecal worm eggs so larvae are less viable, (3) toughen cecal worm egg shells so larvae can’t get out, or use up their energy in doing so and thus are less^viable, (4) kill the larvae in the cecal wall The latter might be accomplished by using drugs easily absorbed by the cecal membrane but harmless to birds Presently used medication against the cecal worm is partial ly effective. It keeps' the worm from maturing Although worm numbers are reduced by such treatment, it must be continued for several years in order to eh nate the disease. The hardy cecal worm eggs can survive on or in the soil for two or three years. One of Lund’s aims is to find out when and how histomonads get into and out of cecal worm eggs Such knowledge would en able use of drugs at a specific time to destroy the histomonads before they find refuge in the worm _ o gs or cecal wall. To get this information, Lund is feeding turkeys worm eggs car rying either no histomonads or only the non-pathogemc strain. After three to six weeks, patho genic histomonods are injected rectally. The birds are slaughter ed no sooner than 30 days after the first dosage This allows time for the worms to mature. Then the worms are removed from the teca ad eggs are removed from the worms. So far, all eggs collected have either been free of histomonads or have carried only the non-path ogemc histomonads the kind originally introduced. Lund is gradually narrowing down the time between doses so infection will take place. Thus, he can es tablish the time the pathogenic histomonads enter the worm egg. Basic information on immuniza tion is also coming out of this work. Indications are that the histo monad usually leaves the worm egg after the worm enters the cecal mmbrane. And it looks as if the histomonad is earned with in the larval worm—r jt merely within the egg shell. *■ - ' The cat is apparently resistant to botulism, but it can carry the disease causing organisms and spread the disease after death if the carcass comes in contact with animal feed, the Amencan Veteri nary Medical Association says. A long, dry, whistling cough increasing in severity may indi cate that a dog is suffering from a lung infection by a yeastlike fun gus. The organism can infect man, the Amencan Veterinary Medical Association leports. Red Vantress Chicks Available Every Thursday None Better! Call BOLTON’S HATCHERY Phone 76-R-3 Schaefferstown, Pa. > VI h : y 1 .fi shire rams to produce the lamb crop. Helping unload the ewes was County Agent Max Smith, who made arrange ments for the sale and delivery The rest of the car-load of 211 went to Juniata, Adams and York Counties. (LF Photo) ARE YOU WEATHERWISE? Want to be your own weather man 9 Penn State has an eight lesson correspondence course on weather sent without charge to residents ol Pennsylvania Write to Farm Study Courses, University Park, Pa , for the first lesson.
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