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Poultry Production in Mississippi

Warty Growths on Comb

The appearance of warty growths or sores on the fleshy parts of a chicken's head is not usually a health risk that the producer should be concerned with. These lesions are produced as the bird's response to fowl pox virus injected by a mosquito. The condition appears more serious than it actually is. A scab forms as the bird develops a resistance to the viral disease organism. The bird will not usually show other effects to the disease and will recover within a short time unless complications arise.

A more detailed discussion of fowl pox is included in Diseases of Poultry