A disease with diarrhea as a main symptom broke out among adult chickens on a poultry farm in Niigata Prefecture. Affected birds presented anemia and a decrease in egg yields. The morbidity rate varied from 30 to 80% depending upon the amount of a particular lot of a particular ration. Pathological examination revealed hemorrhagic, necrotic enteritis or diphtheric enteritis. Clostridium perfringens type A was isolated from the residual feed, as well as the affected chickens. Enterotoxin was demonstrated in the intestinal contents. When inoculated with spores of the isolated organism, chickens manifested essentially the same symptoms as the affected ones.
