The Elimination of the Bursa of Fabricius and Reduction of Antibody Production in Birds from Eggs Dipped in Hormone Solutions

Abstract

IT HAS recently been reported by Meyer (1959) that .63 mg. of 19-nor-testosterone in .1 ml. of corn oil, when injected on the fifth day of incubation into the eggs of chickens will inhibit the development of the bursa of Fabricius. Since the importance of the bursa in antibody production has been revealed in the data of Glick et al. (1956), Glick (1958), and Chang et al. (1957, 1958), we decided to investigate further the effects on the bursa of exposing embryos to sex hormones. Seltzer's (1956) method of introducing these hormones into the egg by dipping the fertile egg into hormonal solution was employed. MATERIALS AND METHODS Four hundred and thirty-two and three hundred and sixty New Hampshire eggs were set in trials 1 and 2, respectively. In each trial the eggs were divided into 5 lots of 72 eggs each. The eggs were dipped on the third day …