OVARIAN INFECTION IN THE DOMESTIC FOWL AND DIRECT TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE TO THE OFFSPRING

Ovarian infection and germinal transmission of disease have been conclusively demonstrated in our investigations of bacillary white diarrhea in the common domestic fowl. The disease, which has caused so much loss to the poultry industry in recent years, primarily affects young chicks that are but a few weeks old. Chicks which survive frequently become permanent bacillus carriers, the ovary being the important seat of infection. The eggs from such carriers often harbor the organism of the disease in the yolk. Chicks that develop in infected eggs become in turn infected, and have the disease at the time of hatching. The disease is transmitted to normal chicks through the infected droppings; thus an epidemic is produced, and the cycle of infection is completed. There is no evidence to indicate that germinal transmission through the male takes place. In view of the frequent negative results bearing on this question it seems probable that it does not.