Agglutinins for Bacterium Pullorum in Hens' Eggs

[摘要] Introduction. In studying the antibodies produced by Bacterium pullorum it occurred to the writer that, since the albumin of the egg may be considered physiologically as a secretion, and that antibodies have frequently been detected in secretions, antibodies for Bacterium pullorum might be present in eggs from hens known to be infected with this organism.Experimental. Eggs were collected from several hens, the serum of which agglutinated Bacterium pullorum . The albumin of the eggs of some of these hens was used in place of the serum in making the agglutination test. The results of the preliminary tests were so striking and definite as to indicate the possible use of egg albumin in place of blood serum in detecting infected hens. The advantages of such a method are quite evident and a more careful study of the problem seemed desirable.For this purpose 16 hens, 10 reactors, 5 non-reactors, and 1 questionable reactor, were isolated and, as far as possible, kept under the same environmental conditions during the experiment.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）