An Investigation of the Pathology of “Grouse Disease.”

Abstract

The causes of death of the grouse are, of course, various. We ourselves have seen pleuropneumonia (in a bird long kept in captivity in Cambridge), pericarditis, necrotic patches in the liver, an obscure chronic disease of the peritoneum, and septic infection from a gangrenous fracture of the wing. On the other hand the great majority of birds, either picked up dead on the moor, or caught by keepers when weak and unable to fly, have been found to be all more or less in the same condition; they were wasted, badly infested with Trichostrongylus pergracilis, and often also with Davainea urogalli or Hymenolepis microps, or with both. More or less pathological change was seen in the caeca; the mucous membrane was often reddened, and under the binocular microscope considerable changes were seen, though we did not observe gross ulceration. Sections examined under the higher powers showed serious chronic inflammatory changes particularly in the immediate neighbourhood of the worms.